


Chronological Supplement to Job & Family

by TigerLilyNoh



Series: Job & Family [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-16 10:17:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 168,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4621587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLilyNoh/pseuds/TigerLilyNoh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a collection of scenes/chapters to act as a supplement to the fic Job & Family (part 1 of this series).  This contains a ton of MAJOR spoilers if you are not current on Job & Family.  I strongly advise you to become current on part 1 before reading this.</p><p>This collection are the flashbacks from Act 2 presented in chronological order.  I will add to it as new flashbacks are posted within the main story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 2009

December 15, 2009 1:15pm

 Everyone quietly processed the latest piece of bad news.  By that point it was hard to think of anything that could really shock them and disappointing turns came with such regularity that they didn't pack nearly as much punch.  Yet the sum of one struggle after the next had left them all too fatigued to really tackle the problem with any enthusiasm.

Bobby leaned against a wall and closed his eyes in frustrated thought.  Castiel sat quietly, relatively unmoved by the revelation.  Ruby slouched on the couch and watched Sam, who cradled Kaylee for some minor comfort.  Dean pulled a quarter out of his pocket and held it up thoughtfully.

"Anyone feeling lucky?"  Dean flipped the quarter, caught it in midair, then slapped it onto the back of his left hand.  His right hand continued to cover it as he looked over at Sam.

"Heads."  Sam said after a few seconds, playing along with the demonstration of the bleak chances.  Dean lifted his hand to peek at the result.

“Heads- we didn’t get blown up.”  Dean fleshed out the fake outcome.

"Now if only we could keep up the good luck..."  Bobby muttered.

"Holy fuck, that could make the difference.”  Ruby sat up as the cogs in her mind started spinning.   “If we make a luck spell in advance, it could knock out some of the spell failure risk.  The luck spell doesn't have to get through the interference of the wards and it can be obvious because it’ll be contained to the immediate area.  It might take a few day or so to design, but that's better than weeks or months and it could make this whole thing less suicidal."

It took a few hours for Ruby to work out the extensive list of spell components & equipment she needed to try making a luck spell.  She explained that the overall process could take several attempts since the odds of executing a luck spell are low, yet failure didn’t cause any damage only lost time.  The irony of needing luck in order to create a luck spell didn’t escape any of them.  After Castiel returned with her supplies, she began laying out some of the components on the table.

"Hey, could one of you give me a hand with this."  Ruby held up a plastic baggie of mummified mice.  Dean kicked his feet up on the couch and grinned to emphasize how committed he was to not partaking in any activity involving dead rodents.  Sam handed Dean the baby as a consolation responsibility, then joined Ruby.

She drew a series of runes on the table in chalk while Sam timidly cut the feet off the mice.  Ruby started instructing Sam about the tails when she stumbled slightly to her right.  Her arms reached out for the tabletop, but couldn't quite grip it for stability.  She knocked over several bottles, one of which fell to the ground & shattered.

"No. No! Argh!"  She hunched forward clutching her chest as she cried out in pain & anguish.  Sam immediately stopped what he was doing and grabbed her to provide support.  After a second she looked up at him with blacks eyes.  "It's the coven- something's wrong.  I can feel it."

"Angels might be attacking it."  Castiel suggested.  "It is likely they would attempt eliminating parties that would give you & Sam quarter."

Ruby was shaking and Sam couldn’t tell if it was from pain, shock, or anger- likely all of the above.  She pulled away from him, rushed around the table, grabbed one of the two angel blades, then disappeared.  Sam looked around frantically.  He knew that she said she had a duty to protect them, but he had no idea that she’d be willing to potentially jump into a fight with an unknown number of angels.  It was reckless, but he couldn’t just let her get herself killed.

"We have to go get her!"  Sam pleaded with Castiel.

"Sam, you can't just chase after her!"  Dean stood up in alarm, still holding Kaylee.

"It's Ruby!"

"But they're-"  Dean began, but Castiel & Sam were gone.

* * *

 Castiel & Sam arrived in the clearing between several of the coven's houses.  They were on the southeastern edge of the camp, away from the more active northern side that had the barn & community building.  As soon as they touched down it was clear that something was wrong.  A significant plume of black smoke rose from one of the far houses, it smelled like ozone, and a crackling noise came from an indistinct location.

Thirty feet away on ground was the body of a woman.  Sam ran over to her, and rolled her over to see if she was alive.  Her face was frozen mid-scream, but all insight into her fear was gained by the shape of her mouth.  Her eye sockets were hollow & scorched.  He felt for a pulse, but found none.

"She was smote.  There is nothing we can do for her."  Castiel said as he walked passed Sam toward the main part of the camp.

Sam got up and followed Castiel.  After a few seconds they could hear the sound of fighting and a man scream.  Rushing around the corner, they found a scene that made Sam sick & enraged.

The central clearing was littered with over a dozen bodies.  Only a few feet to Sam's right was the edge of the vegetable garden that Tom had taken so much pleasure in showing him a year earlier, but now it was practically a graveyard.  Between the rows of vegetables were four children with empty eye sockets.  Parts of the soil were gouged & burnt, giving the distinct impression that some of the witches fought back.  In fact, one of the bodies was unfamiliar and instead of having his eyes burnt, his skin had a blue tinge to it.

Castiel hadn't slowed down at all while passing by the bodies.  He walked with purpose, looking out for other angels while searching for Ruby or any other survivors.  Sam was trying to fight through his shock, but it was difficult.  When he found Pascoe, he fell to his knees.  Small curls of smoke rose from the holes were Pascoe's eyes had been.  His palm was intentionally cut open, probably for a spell.

As Sam was looking at his friend's body, two angels appeared in the clearing.  Castiel yelled to Sam while parrying an attack.  Sam turned just in time to see the second angel reaching for him.  Rolling out of the way, Sam's anger mixed with adrenaline and he telekinetically slammed the angel into the mud.  Then he lunged at the angel, landing on his chest and gripped the throat.  Two different instincts fought for dominance in Sam.  The human side of him crushed down on the angel's windpipe, while the other side of him wanted to burn the angel alive from the inside out.  Light glowed below Sam's hands as the angel spasmed, unable to cry out.  Light emitted from the eyes & mouth as the angel's body went limp and a pair of charcoal wings marked the ground.

Castiel had landed the killing blow on his own opponent, and looked over at Sam in time to see him use his new power on the angel.  The sight was somewhat alarming, though Castiel couldn't fully understand the reasons for his feelings.  Another angel appeared beside Castiel and nearly landed a hit while he was distracted watching Sam.  Sam got up and moved to help Castiel when the sound of a child screaming came from nearby.

"Go!"  Castiel yelled as he blocked an attack.

Sam ran in the direction the scream had come from, but he couldn't find its source.  He passed another group of bodies, which included two children.  It wasn't clear how long they'd been dead.  All the bodies were fresh.  The screaming child could've been one of the two in front of him, or it could've run or hid...  Sam turned and ran for the barn.

He dropped through the trapdoor into Tom's 'secret fort', landing behind an angel.  The angel turned to face Sam, who placed his hand on the angel's chest.  Brilliant light came from the angel's eyes and mouth before its body collapsed to the dirt floor.  Beyond the body, Belda knelt with six small children huddled around her.

"Sam?"  She whispered.

"Castiel, I need you!"  Sam hoped he would be heard.  After a second delay Castiel appeared before Sam.  "Get them to safety."

 Dean had been pacing the small dingy apartment while Bobby tried to busy himself with Kaylee when Castiel teleported into the apartment living room.  Dean was about to throw up his hands and yell at whoever had returned when he saw that the angel was accompanied by a young woman who was surrounded by six children including two infants she clutched to her chest.

"You will be safe here.  I must return to the fight."  Castiel said to the woman before disappearing with no further explanation.

Dean looked down at the woman and kids.  He hadn't been expecting kids.  When he thought of a coven, he thought of old witches, not children.  The woman wasn't even old, she was probably in her early twenties.  Her face was steeled, but Dean could tell that behind the act she was terrified.  The children were crying or frightened into complete silence.  Dean crouched down in a nonthreatening gesture.

"I'm Dean, Sam's brother.  You’re safe here."

* * *

 Sam ran into the community building, stepping to avoid several bodies while crossing the clearing.  He wanted to stop to check if anyone laying on the ground was alive, but by then he knew that angels wouldn't merely injure.  Turning into the social hall, Sam saw an angel looking at the floor.  Gabin's body was at her feet, eyes burnt out of the sockets.  Sam ran in and mostly dodged her attack with an angel blade, only suffering a small cut on his left shoulder.  He killed her in one luminescent grasp, dropped her, then knelt down beside Gabin.  Sam ran his hand over his face in grief.  His palm came back damp with tears & blood.  He didn't know when he'd started crying and the way that the taste of blood fell into his lips he suspected that using his powers had caused another nose bleed.  He wiped his face quickly, then made to get up and continue looking for Ruby, when he heard a noise.

A quiet rustling came from a cupboard a few feet in front of Sam.  He crept forward and opened the door slightly.  Tom was curled up in the cramped space. His arms wrapped defensively around his head and his whole body was trembling.  He peeked between his arms at the sound of the cupboard door opening.

"Sam!"

"Tom!  Listen, I'm going to get you out of here."  Sam looked around the room, which was blocked from Tom's view by the cupboard door.  "I need you to do something for me.  I'm going to carry you.  I need you to hold onto me and keep your eyes shut.  Can you do that?"

Tom nodded.  Sam leaned forward and scooped up the young boy. Tom wrapped his arms around Sam's neck, then pressed his face into Sam's shoulder.  Sam held Tom in his arms, but supported him in such a way that Sam's right arm could still be used in a pinch.  Sam stood and started making his way out of the room.

"Just keep your eyes shut until I tell you it's okay to look."  Sam whispered as he carried Tom passed his dead father and the bodies of a dozen coven-mates.  Sam turned a corner to find Ruby.  She had some blood on her and held a large tome.

"Sam, did you find anyone else?"

"I had Castiel take some back to safety.  Did you?"  Ruby shook her head.

Castiel appeared next to them.

"It is likely that more angels will be arriving soon."  Advised the angel.

"I don't feel anyone else.  I think we're it."  Ruby referred to her connection to the coven.  She looked faint.

"If this child is the last survivor, then we should leave this place." Castiel suggested.  Sam thought about trying to cover Tom's ears, but it was too late.  Sam took one last look around the once peaceful little community before they teleported back.

In spite of the woman and the traumatized children taking refuge in the large bedroom, Dean had fully intended to yell at Sam for running off, but he stopped himself when he saw Sam holding the young boy.  Sam sat down on the awful couch and hugged the kid for a few long seconds.

"Tom, we're safe.  You can open your eyes."  But Tom didn't look around at first.  He just kept his arms wrapped tightly around Sam's neck.  Sam patted his back.  "Tom, I need you to do me a favor.  There are other kids here with Belda.  She's going to need help taking care of them.  Do you think you can go help Belda?"

Sam felt Tom nodding.  When the boy looked up at Sam, his eyes were pink, but his expression was resolute.  Tom climbed down and walked into the other room, which emitted the quiet sounds of whimpering children.  Sam looked down at his shirt and noticed two damp spots where Tom had been crying.

The concern & outrage that Bobby & Dean had felt at the reckless move was quickly replaced with sympathy for the devastation of everyone around them.  Castiel was unreadable, but he did not make eye contact with anyone.  

Ruby place the tome down on the table, then clutched a glass bottle so hard that it shattered in her hand.  Sam hurried over to her and tried to check her hand, which was bleeding.  She was too upset to let anyone help her, so she pulled her hand away from him, but didn’t move away.  He wrapped his arms around her to embrace her.  She thrashed with rage and helplessness, but eventually she let herself be held and cried into his chest.

"At least you saved the kids."  Dean tried to say something reassuring after the painful silence.

"The coven had 15 kids."  Ruby said.  Dean did the quick math and cringed.

* * *

 After Bobby spotted Sam struggling with his powers induced nosebleed, Sam had been instructed to take the smaller bedroom and to get some rest.  For two hours, he laid awake on the twin mattress with Kaylee sleeping on his chest.  He’d lost several friends that day- and those were just the ones he’d known about.  Castiel had said the angels would go after anyone who would be likely to give him & Ruby shelter.  There were dozens of people that might be on Heaven’s hit list because of him and he had no idea where they were to warn them.  

While he was deep in unpleasant thoughts, the door opened slowly and Tom tiptoed in.  The boy approached the side of Sam's bed, then silently laid down on the floor.

"Are you okay?"  Sam whispered.  There was a little shuffling sound and Tom peeked over the edge of Sam's bed.

"I couldn't sleep."  Tom looked down in embarrassment.  "I… I had nightmares."

“It’s okay.  Everyone gets nightmares, but you’re safe here.”  Sam tried to reassure Tom, but knew that it didn’t mean much after the day he’d had.

“Could I sleep in here?”  Tom asked quietly.  Sam didn’t quite know how to respond, but nodded.  Tom laid back down on the floor.  Sam looked around the sparsely furnished room and sighed.  He scooted toward the side of the bed against the wall.

"Tom, you can get in the bed."

Tom climbed onto the tiny portion on mattress that was left.  Sam felt a little awkward, but he wasn't about to let the kid sleep on the disgusting floor.  After a few minutes, Tom fell asleep hugging Sam's side.

For several hours Sam laided there, Kaylee sleeping on his chest and Tom sleeping next to him.  He thought about all the destruction that had been caused or might be caused because of him.  His family & friends were struggling to find resource that might be dying at the hands of angels at that very moment.  They didn’t have a long term plan or a safe harbor sufficient to accommodate the six adults and eight children in the apartment.  With their contacts potentially being hunted by angels, they didn’t have days to try to improve their luck.

When Tom was deep asleep, Sam carefully climbed off the mattress, only stirring the boy slightly.  He stood alone in the tiny hallway for a few minutes holding Kaylee.  He kissed her tiny forehead, then went into the living room.  Ruby walked up to him to see how he was doing, but before she could ask, Sam handed Kaylee to Ruby.  Holding the back of Ruby head with one hand, Sam kissed her deeply.  Bobby, Dean, & Castiel all stopped talking and turned to look at the strangely affectionate display.

"I'm sorry."  Sam said to Ruby, who looked up in confusion at him.  "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Sam reached into his pocket and withdrew Crowley's talisman.  He smiled sadly, then clenched his hand around the talisman.

"Wait-"  Ruby started to say, but Sam disappeared.

* * *

December 16, 2009 10:30am

 Ruby sat on the shabby couch rocking Kaylee anxiously.  In the two hours since Sam had left, no one had really discussed his leaving because there wasn't anything to say.  It was obvious where he'd gone and they couldn't do anything to change that.  Ruby was the only one that had the ability to go to Hell relatively safely, but she didn't know what the situation was down there and if she'd be able to get to Sam, let alone return topside.  At that point they had to wait and see if he'd be allowed to return- if not, they'd have one more massive problem to deal with.

Tom silently came out of the bedroom where Belda & Bobby were trying to wrangle the other children.  He looked briefly at Dean & Castiel, who were talking about which angelic choirs were combat trained, then inched away from them.  He crept up to Ruby and climb onto the couch next to her.  He had been incredibly withdrawn since being rescued sixteen hours earlier, but he seemed a little more at ease sitting next to a familiar face.

"Is that your baby?"  He asked after quietly watching the newborn for several minutes.

"Yeah, her name is Kaylee."  Ruby managed a small smile.  She was grateful for the distraction and conversation that didn't revolve around the angels, who slaughtered their family hours earlier.  She lowered Kaylee slightly and turned her body to give Tom a better view.

"How old is she?"

"Just a few days."

"She has a lot of hair."  

"Some babies do.  I think you can blame that on Sam- he's her dad."  Tom nodded as he processed the information- whether he understood genetics or where babies came from, Ruby had no idea.  He looked around the room thoughtfully and Ruby wondered if she'd accidentally brought up the painful facts that neither Sam nor Gabin were with them.  She tried to think of something comforting to say, but Tom spoke first.

"She doesn't know what's going on?"  

"I think it takes awhile before babies really start understanding stuff, but I could be wrong."  Kaylee slept in apparent peace, which seemed to lessen the subtle look of concern on Tom's face. "She's not going to be doing much for awhile, mostly she'll be resting."

"I've met babies before, they need a lot of help until they're bigger."  Tom commented in a very matter-of-fact tone.  After a thoughtful pause, he looked up at Ruby.  "Can I help you?"

Ruby was a little surprised by the offer.  She'd expected Sam and to a lesser extent the adults to be some source of support, but she hadn't expected a six year old to volunteer.  Tom had been something of a leader among the children at the coven, but now that things had become serious he was apparently really stepping into the role of guardian.

"Sure.  Do you know how to hold a baby?"  Tom expression turned a little uncertain.  "That's okay.  See how I'm doing it."

Dean watched the conversation from across the room while Castiel continued to talk at length, unaware of his audience’s distraction.  When Kaylee was placed in Tom's arms, Dean walked over and sat down crosslegged on the floor beside Tom.  Tom leaned back slightly and watched him nervously.

"I'm Dean, Sam's big brother."  The boy looked a little confused by Dean's claim to be bigger than Sam.  "I'm Sam's older brother.  When I was a little younger than you, I helped take care of him as a baby."

"You must've been a buff four year old hauling a baby giant around."  Ruby joked with a softness that betrayed her concern, fatigue, & gratitude that she wasn’t having to expend the mental effort to trade insults with Dean.

"He actually was a runt until around sixteen.  Kids at school used to tease him for being small- guess he showed them."  Dean smiled a little, then looked at Tom.  "If you adjust your left arm it'll probably be easier to hold her.  Can I show you?"

Tom nodded and Dean reached over.  He shifted Kaylee's head slightly, allowing Tom's arm to relax a bit more.  Tom looked down at Kaylee with a slightly furrowed brow.

"Are we really safe here?"  The boy asked.

"For now, those symbols on the walls are wards that are hiding us from those angels."  Said Ruby as she gently patted Tom’s back.

"They weren't hunters?"  Dean's lighthearted guise was rattled by Tom's assumption.  It was a strange feeling to be faced with the flip side of a hunt.  A week earlier, he'd been mentally adding Ruby's coven to his bucket list, now he was nearly horrified at the suggestion that hunters could have committed the massacre.  Maybe the boy didn't see any of the fighting or maybe he didn't know what hunters were like?  It was surprising to think that Sam, who the boy seemed awfully attached to, hadn't corrected his misconceptions about hunters... Granted, maybe Sam had never told Tom that he was a hunter.

"No, hunters are just people."  Ruby answered, taking some pressure off of Dean.  "The things that attacked the coven were very powerful creatures.  The coven didn't know how to defend against them, but we're safe here now.  I'm sorry we couldn't get there sooner, Tom."

Ruby's eyes watered and her lips thinned.  Dean tried not to look at either of them for fear that he'd also succumb to his feelings of guilt or pity.  Tom leaned against Ruby's side and she wrapped an arm around him.  After a long period of quiet, Tom looked up at Ruby.

"Where’s Sam?"  His voice was concerned, but not scared.

"He went to talk to a powerful demon to ask it for help."  Ruby answered.

"Is the demon a nice demon?"

"That’s a good question."

* * *

 Sam found himself seated in a small windowless office of sorts.  The walls were made from light grey stone blocks that fit together nearly seamlessly.  The room was just big enough to comfortably hold its limited furnishings: two floor to ceiling polished walnut bookcases, one six foot wide polished walnut desk, two matching polished walnut guest chairs, & a more ornately carved polished walnut chair behind the desk.  Sam was seated in one of the guest chairs, which felt a bit hard and too small.  Crowley sat opposite him in the larger chair.

"So glad you could make it."  The Archdemon greeted him with a broad smile.  When Sam shifted in his chair, Crowley snap his fingers and Sam suddenly found the chair to be much more comfortable for no obvious reason.  "Sorry about that, I forgot to dehex those chairs after my last appointment."

"Thanks."  Sam was trying not to sound too snarky, he was there to ask for help after all. "I need your help.  My family's in trouble and I'm ready to deal if it means they'll be safe."

"I'm sure we can work out something."

"There are angels after us."

Crowley nodded as he thought for a moment.  He seemed to process the statement better than Sam had expected.  When he finally did speak, he was perfectly calm & collected.

"Angels complicate things a bit, but we may have some protections against them."

"You knew about the angels?"  

"Not with any certainty, but when a creature attacks my territory you can bet I'll start doing my homework.”  Crowley’s voice only revealed a hint of resentment at the violation, before switching to a more reassuring tone.  “Hell's defenses against angels have been increased considerably since the attack.  I doubt an angel could last a minute down here, if it could get in at all."

Sam dwelled briefly on 'here'.  He'd expected to go to Hell when he decided to meet with Crowley, but it was another thing to do it.  He looked around the room again, taking it in with a newfound curiosity.  Crowley observed the reaction and smiled mischievously.

"Did you expect it all to be fire & brimstone?"

"I don't really know what I expected."  Sam thought back to all the times Ruby had told him about Hell.  Each time he had realized just how wrong his assumptions had been.  Now he was struggling to just take the experience as it appeared.

"Tell you what, I'll give you a little tour of the Citadel -that's where we are- and maybe a bit of Central District. We'll skip the racks & all the unpleasant bits that your imagination is no doubt filling in.  You get to see all the behind the scenes excitement and while I'm showing you around we can chat a bit.  Then afterwards we can really get down to business."

"I'm in a hurry."  Sam felt tenser with every new pleasantry.  He’d already wasted too much time debating whether to come at all, now that he was there he needed to get it over with fast.

"Time moves differently down here.  On Earth you've only been gone a few seconds.”  Crowley tried to put his mind at ease.  “You can afford to look around.  If you agree to my terms you will be spending some time down here.  You should at least know that it won't be spent over burning coals."

"The angels could be hunting down my friends right now.  I don't have time to go sightseeing."  Sam’s desperation was becoming obvious, but he almost didn’t really care- lives were potentially on the line.

Crowley thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers.  A blank sheet of parchment & a black fountain pen appeared on the desk in front of Sam.

"List the people you're interested in providing protection for in the interim.  I'll send out the scouts to find them.  If they're still alive, they'll be moved somewhere safe until we finish our business here.  Fair enough?"

"They'll be 'moved'- You're going to abduct them?"

"That's one way of looking at it, another is that I'm rescuing them."  Crowley smiled, but his eyes were completely indifferent.  "I imagine most of your friends won't be keen on demons knocking at their door, but I really don't care about their feelings.  Any we can save we will, but you're right that we won't be asking pretty please."

Sam thought about the indignity & chaos that might ensue, but compared to the risks of not accepting the offer of help... He began listing a dozen hunters & the handful of other contacts he'd met through Ruby.  As an afterthought, Sam added the names of two college friends that he occasionally kept tabs on.  If the angels were as tech savvy as Castiel had mentioned there was a risk of the friends being found in his recent search history on the laptop he had left at Bobby's house.  

As he started running out of names, he paused and slowly moved his hand to cover the names in hesitation.  Crowley was watching him with slightly more than casual interest.

"You're going to use them as hostages." It wasn't a question, Sam knew that was exactly what he was giving up.

"If necessary, but wouldn't you rather be bargaining for their lives than just forfeiting them in the first place."  Sam pushed the completed list across the desk in resignation.    
“And I want any of the surviving members of Ruby’s coven given the same treatment.  I don’t know their names, but I imagine you can figure it out.”

“Maji deals aren’t as well documented as Crossroad deals, but we’ll see what we can manage.”  The Archdemon snapped his fingers again and the list disappeared along with the pen.  "Now that the searches are underway, we can get back to business-"

"How long will it take?"  

"Unfortunately, hunters can be difficult for us to locate or access at times- it might be hard to forcibly remove a hunter if there are salt lines or an anti-possession tattoo.  That combined with the time difference... I wouldn't expect to hear any news for at least a few hours our time, so you should try to unwind.  Which reminds me- where are my manners?"  The Archdemon snapped his fingers again summoning a platter of food, a decanter of an amber liquid, & two glasses.  "Go ahead and have something, I know you're famished."

It was true.  Sam had skipped a meal in order to give up his food to the children.  Before that he'd only had two very sorry excuses for meals in the last two days.  He didn't want to show anymore vulnerability or even really gratitude in front of Crowley, but who knew how long he'd have to be stuck there.  It was technically within his power to suffer through his hunger on principle, but he wasn't sure how much being stubborn would gain him.

"How did you know that I'm hungry?"  Sam asked as he warily grabbed a finger sandwich.

"In Hell, with enough experience you can feel the pain radiating off of people.  Different types of pain feel different-"

"Must be useful in negotiations."  Sam commented between bites.

"It's delightful."  Crowley unstopped the decanter and poured himself a glass.  "Scotch or do you have another drink of choice?"

"Just water."  The last thing he needed was to drink hard alcohol on a nearly empty stomach.  Crowley grinned and nodded with approval at the wisely cautious answer.  Sam ate another small sandwich, then realized how much better he was feeling.  "Why are you being nice to me?"

"We both know that if you're desperate enough to contact me, then you'll likely say yes.  The question is how much I can get out of you.  I'm willing to wager that I could gain more in the long term by making you happier and giving more in negotiations than by squeezing you for all you're worth right now. You already want to kill Lilith and the angels are after you.  I think you'll be surprised to find that team Hell isn't so far from where you stand currently.  So I'm being nice because I think it will pay off in the end.  If you prove to be needlessly uncooperative... then I'll need to rethink my technique."

Sam nodded in understanding.  He was being manipulated through politeness, partially veiled threats, & his own weak bargaining position.  Crowley wasn't trying to enslave him, he was trying to recruit him.

"How often do you use the carrot instead of the stick?"  Sam’s academic curiosity was starting to embrace the otherwise disconcerting small talk.

"Only when I don't want to leave any bruises."  Crowley sipped his scotch with a little twinkle in his eye.  "And bruises are traded so frequently in Hell that's they're practically currency down here."

"I thought your currency was souls or is the act of torturing as valuable as the soul it's being inflicted on?"  Sam had always thought of damned souls as the main goods of Hell, but he hadn’t really considered what purpose they served or the relevance of the torment inflicted upon them.

"This conversation is about to peek behind the veil,”  Crowley straightened in his chair with renewed interest.  “which I'll allow conditioned on a small agreement: Many of the things that you see or hear about are extremely confidential-"

"You want me to promise to keep it secret?"

"No, that wouldn't prevent you from still screwing me over if you wanted to.  Instead, the small agreement is that: if we don't reach a formal agreement & alliance by the time you leave here, then you will have all of your memory between the end of this sentence and your departure from Hell erased.  Okay?"

"Do I have a choice?"  Sam asked a little surprised.

"Not if you want my help."

"Fine.  I agree."  Crowley stood and walked around the desk.  When he started moving toward Sam instead of the door, Sam briefly wondered if Crossroads demons had to seal every deal with a kiss, but instead Crowley just extended his hand to shake.  Sam hesitated for a moment, then took it.  A strange tingling sensation moved up Sam's arm from the handshake.

"That's the contract being written onto your soul.  It's much harder to feel on Earth and the process works differently up there, but it's basically the same idea.”  Crowley gestured toward the office door.  “Shall we go peek behind the veil?"

* * *

Sam found that the Citadel proved true to its name.  As he followed Crowley through the labyrinth of unremarkable grey stone hallways, it took almost no time at all to realize that the complex must be massive.  None of the rooms or corridors he had seen contained windows- he wasn't even sure if they were above ground... granted he wasn't even sure if Hell had sky to distinguish the ground.  The stone construction gave the entire place the feeling of a fortress or castle that had somehow been designed without a single aesthetic indulgence.  

"This is the Citadel, the heart of Hell.  It is about thirty square kilometers- think about half the size of Manhattan.  Clearly, I won't be showing you the whole thing right now, but we'll hit a few of the highlights.  The Citadel contains all of our administrative activities, most of our archives, & our most fortified locations.  Beyond the walls of the Citadel is the Central District, which surrounds it on all sides, creating a large buffer zone from the Pits.

Central District is Hell's metropolitan center.  It's surrounded by another wall, which is currently the border between Lilith's forces & our own.  Central is roughly the size to the greater New York City area.  The majority of our less combative castes reside there, but don't take that to mean that every demon in Central is sweet.  They just practice different kinds of cruelty."

"Thanks for the warning."  Sam recalled Ruby's brief description of Central and its figurative bombs.  "Ruby said that there's a prison in the Central District, isn't that a bit redundant?"

"I suppose it depends on how you look at it.  Do you think Hell is a prison?  Or maybe you think that we don't have criminals?... Or on the other end, that we don't have laws at all?"

"I'm sure Hell has laws- otherwise a bureaucrat like you wouldn't have so much power."  Crowley grinned impishly at Sam's astute observation.

"Yes, instead it'd be someone like Lilith.  I can't begin to tell you all the bolts that came loose under her brief guidance.  It was like watching a child use a Gutenberg to make paper mâché."

Sam raised an eyebrow at Crowley’s metaphor.  To compare Hell to a Gutenberg bible seemed like an awfully bold & vain move.  Though he had to admit that in terms of the historical significance, the inner workings of Hell probably had a more significant impact than he’d thought.  He’d never really given the mechanics of Hell a moment of consideration until recently, which was probably a testament to its effectiveness.  Messing with a delicate system was understandably frustrating, but there had been something in the Archdemon’s voice that went beyond bitterness.

"Your thing with Lilith, it's personal, isn't it?"  Sam's question brought Crowley to a halt.

"At The Crossroads, we're entirely business.  But the High Council's chambers is not always ruled by calmer heads… And when you kill my peers and attempt to kill me... Yes, it's very personal."

"How did you survive?"  Sam quickly added.  "I'm guessing combat isn't your strength."

"Combat isn't, but covering my ass is... maybe someday you'll convince me to tell you how.  But for now, that card will stay up my sleeve."  Crowley began walking again and Sam hurried to keep up.

"The Archdemons that were killed- what even happens when a demon dies?"  Sam had been particularly curious about the subject since becoming involved with Ruby.  Neither of them liked to dwell on the possible long term aspects of their relationship, but occasionally it did keep him up at night.

"When a demon dies on Earth it's not our mess to clean up, but if they die down here usually we have to deal with the shell of their broken soul- the part that walks & talks."  Sam was a little disappointed that Crowley seemed to be more focused on the practical & physical rather than the subjective experience, but he almost didn't mind that much since he was being provided new trivia.  "Sometimes demons will smoke around down here without taking on a form, rumor is that if you die like that you'll just disappear.  But for the ones with form, lesser corpses are destroyed & honored corpses are entombed.  There are less than eighty tombs in Central, with a rogues gallery of Hell's heroes.  Most prominent are the Knights of Hell-"

"Knights of Hell?”  He remembered some mention of knights when Ruby was looking through the encyclopedia of Hell at Bobby’s, but she hadn’t elaborated on them at all.

"Very powerful demons, similar to Archdemons, but they aren't chosen by their caste- they don't even have a caste.  Each one was supposedly recruited personally by Lucifer.  Every once in awhile a Knight or two will rise from their tomb in the service of Hell-"

"Rise up?  They're like zombie demons?"  Sam interrupted.

"Not really.  The tombs are more like where they recover from the injuries- it doesn’t matter how bad the damage, if you give a Knight enough time, they’ll be back in fighting shape.  Apparently the bastards are just really hard to kill."

* * *

 While Crowley was expounding on some comparatively boring explanation about the theories of the Citadel’s masonry, Sam was briefly distracted by an ajar door that opened into a massive library containing hundreds of shelves full of small glass vials.  He peeked inside and saw a laboratory setup with several sophisticated workbenches.  The equipment was a strange combination of science in the form of precision microscopes and sorcery in the form of runes on the work surfaces.

"One of Morrison's little pet projects."  Sam turned to find that Crowley had backtracked the twenty feet from where he'd last seen his guide, and was standing right behind him.  "Try to keep up, or at least make sure we don't get separated."

"Don't want me seeing certain things?"

"I'm more concerned about you being seen, but that's not actually what I had in mind."  Crowley gestured for Sam to continue following him through the halls.  After a quick glance back into the lab, Sam allowed the tour to resume.  "It's easy to get lost in here- it's actually designed that way.  I suspect the intent was equal parts defensive & malicious."

"I thought we were in the nice part of Hell-"  Sam realized the contradiction in his own statement.  "Nevermind, I think I've figured it out."

"Relatively speaking, this is the nice part, but you'll find that everything here has at least some barbed edges.  It helps if you can have a sense of humor or professional appreciation for the small torments.  Lightheartedness is the most effective way to thicken the hide."

"Lighthearted in Hell- seriously?"

"It might seem daft now, but hopefully after awhile it will make some sense."

Turning a corner, Sam felt a strange sensation of disorientation.  He could've sworn that they'd made five consecutive left turns at relatively even intervals along their walk, but they hadn't retraced any steps.  They hadn't taken any stairs and the floor didn't seem to be slanted...

"Does Hell itself mess with your sanity or is it just the demons in it that do the damage?"  Sam asked as he realized there weren't any signs or artwork on the walls to act as a landmark and all the doors were identical.

"That's a tad metaphysical for my tastes, but I imagine that most things could drive a person mad if you let them get under your skin.  You'd be surprised to see some of the dungeons that specialize in breaking souls with a gentle touch- they're not as popular as your burner or blades dungeons, but the results can be astounding."

"How long does it take to break a soul with the gentle approach?"

"Usually around 250 years, local time."

Sam ran the math.  If Hell really had an innately toxic effect that was essentially a gentle torture, without reprieve he'd be looking at breaking in only two years Earth time on the low end.  As he looked back down the unsettlingly drab hallway where they had just come from, he realized that he couldn't even remember now whether they’d turned left or right five times in a row.  He sighed silently, then continued following Crowley.  

They entered a foyer that had at least a dozen other hallways & staircases coming off of it.  In the large room there were a handful of creatures moving about.  There was almost no uniformity in their appearance.  All but one was humanoid.  Four had nearly human faces, while the others looked as though they had been spliced with characteristics of animals or natural materials.  The overall impression that their appearances gave was disorganized.

"What are they?"  Sam asked quietly.

Crowley didn't bother stopping to maintain some polite distance from the creatures while discussing them.  He continued walking, though he turned his body slightly to look back at Sam who followed him a few steps behind in mild hesitation.

"Who."  Crowley corrected.  "They're demons.  Not everyone is skilled enough to maintain a more human exterior, and not everyone wants to.  If you want to see the ones that are all spikes & viscera, then I suggest the Pits.  They love that sort of theatrics.  In Central our demons might be a little easier for you to stomach, since they don't spend all their time mutilating souls."

Seeing demons in person, Sam started to understand what Ruby had been talking about months ago.  She had told him that demons could take many different forms, but were often the reflections of their twisted & broken souls.  He hadn't expected the demons to be literally twisted, but as he approached them he noticed that many lacked any appearance of symmetry.  It made some level of sense that without a higher level of concentration a self-created form might shift or fade from neglect.

Mostly of their appearances vaguely indicated some sort of gender, but a few of them were completely androgynous.  If their form was a reflection of the self, then he supposed there was a broad spectrum of sexes in Hell.  Sam had some trans & genderqueer friends back at Stanford and secretly empathized to the extent that any of them had body dysmorphia.  Even before he knew about his demon blood or Abyssal qualities, he had felt like something inside him didn't quite match the exterior.  In exposing demons' inner workings & self-image, Hell seemed to have actually eliminated one of the major opportunities for an identity crisis that exists for humans.  Sam smirked at the idea that maybe, on at least one point, Hell might be a more tolerant environment than Earth.  

* * *

 They entered a large hall that was clearly meant for official gatherings.  Based on the locations of the heavy black metal chandeliers, the hall might normally be filled with three columns of seats or long tables.  Currently, the only object in the room, aside from the light fixtures, was The Seat.  

At the far end of the hall was a fairly utilitarian carved wooden chair that appeared to meld into the trunk of a massive tree unlike Sam had ever seen.  The tree must've been thirty feet tall with branches spanning forty or fifty feet, nearly filling the entire last quarter of the hall.  Its joints were gnarled, but there were no indications of aging or damage such as holes or cracks.  The wood was pure black and it lacked leaves to adorn its many spindly branches.  It almost seemed dead in appearance, yet Sam felt like that would be a dismissive assumption for something that had such an air of importance.

A male demon stood at attention next to the tree, roughly five feet from the throne.  He looked like a somewhat short & stout human, but his skin was almost like marble in places.  His mouth seemed lipless, making it more of a thin crack than anything else.  Solid black eyes could barely be seen below his pronounced brow.  He wore scale mail and held a two-handed maul, giving him the overall look of a brute.

"There it is.  The very center of Hell."  Crowley's voice carried a little pride in spite of how frequently he must have seen it.

"Guard?"  Sam pointed to the demon.

"Something like that, he's a Knight.  The Seat doesn't actually need protection, but no one has succeeded in explaining that to Mir.  Starting about three weeks ago local time, a handful of the Knights started waking up.  This one just came straight here and hasn't moved since."  Crowley pointed to the demon, who didn't react at all to being spoken about.  In fact as Sam approached Mir he got the impression that the demon hardly noticed them at all.

"He's a-"  Sam realized that he was about to rudely talk about Mir as if he wasn't there.  Turning his body slightly to face the stout demon, Sam started again.  "You're a Knight of Hell?"

Mir stood a little taller, trying to instill even more dignity into his already professional stance.  Sam couldn't tell exactly where his eyes were looking while they were solid black, but in spite of his head not moving, Sam got the distinct feeling that Mir was watching him.

"Yeah, this one'll talk your ear off if you let him.  I'm not even sure if he speaks Abyssal... Or he could just be a complete cabbage."  Crowley said something that Sam assumed was in Abyssal, but Mir didn't react in the slightest.  With a quick shrug Crowley turned and began walking towards a doorway on the right side of the hall.  "If you'll follow me, the High Council's chamber is through here."

As Sam turned, a flicker of color in the sea of grey and black caught his eye.  He stopped and turned his head back.  For a second he could have sworn that the tree was white with thousands of small red flowers covering its branches, but when he looked back at it the tree was plain ebony.  Sam frowned, started to turn back to Crowley, then saw the flash of white & red from the corner of his eye.  Looking back, it was once again plain.

"Cute trick."  Sam muttered to himself.

"Did you say something?"  Asked Crowley from across the hall.

"Just that's a cute trick with the tree."  Sam walked over to Crowley to continue with his tour, but Crowley looked puzzled.

"Pardon?"

"The light & color flicker with the tree."  Crowley just continued to stare at Sam in confusion.  "When you look at it straight on it's black & plain, but out of the corner of the eye it's white with red flowers."

The silence that followed made Sam incredibly uncomfortable.  Crowley's expression made him wonder if he had just accidentally confessed to being insane- maybe Hell was getting to him faster than anyone had expected?  He wanted the silence to stop, but was worried that he might say something to make it worse.  Yet the thing that did break the silence was arguably worse than anything Sam could say.

Mir’s armor rattled & shifted as he turned to face Sam.  Mir studied Sam for a painfully long moment, then gestured for him to come closer.  Sam hesitated.  The Knight clearly had something in mind and it had been triggered by Sam doing something so unprecedented that Crowley was at a loss.  

"You heard the man."  Crowley coaxed in a tone that assured Sam he was equally uncertain of Mir’s intent.

Sam cautiously walked toward the mute Knight.  He wasn't sure what to expect, but it unnerved him.  When he got within about ten feet of the throne he felt strangely distracted.  He had been focused on Mir, but his attention was gradually drawn to the tree.  In an almost dreamlike daze, he fleetingly noticed he was barely aware that Mir & Crowley were still in the room-  There was something more important for him to investigate.  As Sam continued forward, in the back of his mind he could hear Crowley telling him to be careful, but he didn't feel in danger.

Without even thinking about it, Sam placed his hand onto the throne's armrest.  His eyes rolled back for a second as he felt a bit heady with power.  Part of him wanted more, but the surprise of what he’d just done shook him back to reality.  He recoiled in alarm and checked his hand for injury, but it seemed fine.  Looking back to the throne, he noticed that the place where his hand had touched the armrest had turned white, but quickly faded back to black once he had released it.

Crowley was frozen in wide eyed shock.  Sam stood awkwardly clutching his hand and shaking with nerves.  He felt exposed- like a dream where involving being naked in class.  But this was so much worse in ways that he knew he couldn’t even imagine.  His stomach sank a little further when he finally looked over at Mir.  The Knight had returned to standing at attention, but his insignificant mouth had curled into an unsettling smile.  

"Well, that is very interesting."  Whispered Crowley.

* * *

 "Shall we talk initial terms?"  Crowley relaxed in his office chair, giving the intentional appearance of confidence.  He had been a conscientious host so far, but they were about to get down to business and both knew that there was an imbalance in their bargaining power.  Crowley had the knowledge & vision, while Sam had some not yet understood power.  They could each potentially make the other’s lives easier or more difficult, but Sam had less of an idea of how to go about it.  After netting out their strengths & weaknesses, Sam was pretty sure that he was still in the worse bargaining position, regardless of what had happened with the tree.

“Initial?  We aren’t going to figure this out right now?”  

“In order to know what our long term strategy should be we’ll need to do a significant amount of research and private negotiations with the other powers that be down here.  I hadn’t expected it to be a very involved process, but I also hadn’t expected for you to have your little run in with The Seat.”  Sam cringed inwardly at the realization that it was indeed going to have significant repercussions.  “Thanks to that new development, we’ll have to start from the ground up and I think we both will want some assurances in the meantime.”

“Assurances?”

“You want to secure protections for your people regardless of how long we spend working out the details and I want assurance that you’re actually committed to the overall venture.”  Crowley softly tapped his fingertips on the top of his desk.  “So tell me- knowing that we can add to the agreement as we go, what do you want to start with?”

Now that he wasn't under as much time pressure and had seen some of Crowley's influence, Sam took a moment to reassess his goals.  Wishing away Lilith or some comparable easy fix was guaranteed impossible if only because Crowley & he would've certainly taken care of it in five minutes had it been an option.  Crowley was smart enough to have already tried any quick resolutions, so Sam pushed the big picture from his mind.  He had come here to protect his family and that would stay his primary objective.

"I want my family- that includes close friends, safe from the angels & Lilith.  I want them provided for-"

"You know the Citadel is probably the safest from angels at the moment."  Crowley suggested as he began pouring himself a glass of scotch.

"I don't want them held prisoner or restricted to Hell.  Dean would probably..."  The thought made Sam feel a little sick.  "I don't even want to think about how he'd react to being back down here."

"You could split the lot.  Dean & Bobby would be happier on Earth, and Ruby & the pup would be safest-"  

"I don't want my daughter growing up in Hell."  

"Is a cigar in order?"  Crowley looked up and raised an eyebrow as a hopeful smile spread across his face.

"Let's get back to the terms."  Sam evaded.  The less that was said about Kaylee the better.  Crowley didn’t continue to press the topic, though he did pour Sam a glass and placed it in front of his guest.  Sam eyed the beverage, but didn’t refuse it.

"Anything else you'd like to add to your list of demands?"

"The witches in Ruby's coven and anyone on my list that were killed by the angels, I want them resurrected and provided the same benefits we've been discussing for my other close friends & family."

"Can't do that-"

"I know the Crossroads can resurrect."  Sam still had the scar on the middle of his back that was evidence of one such temporary fatality.

"It's not the fact that they're dead, it's the fact that the angels did it.  We're in the early stages of developing our anti-Heaven capabilities.  We can't undo their damage yet, that kind of magic could take a long time to make functional.  If we eventually figure out a way to bring them back, then you can exercise the option at that time.  Fair enough?"

Sam sighed.  He'd hoped that he could just make the deal and fix everything, but it wasn't that easy.  Gabin, Pascoe, Seline, the children, almost all of the coven and an unknown number of friends would remain dead indefinitely.  The prospect of eventually bringing them back was more than nothing, but honestly he questioned whether that would be the right thing to do if enough time passed.  If their souls weren’t in the Pit, pulling them back from Heaven or wherever might become more harmful than good.  He’d have to talk with Castiel about the implications, but at least retaining the option was something.

"Fine.  What do you want from me?"

"Your loyalty & obedience."  Sam glared at Crowley, but didn't say anything.  He’d been waiting for this moment since he’d arrived.  Crowley had finally decided to take him for all he was worth and he was basically at the Archdemon's mercy, which was a terrifying thought.  

Signing away his loyalty and/or obedience could mean any of a number of things, especially when magic was involved.  It could merely being in breach of the contract when he fail to adhere to his duty- and what was the punishment for breaching a contract in Hell?  Alternatively it could mean having his mind altered to naturally feel loyal & obedient to another.  Maybe he would still retain his normal capacity, but he would be physically incapable of defying.  Sam hoped that they could settle on something that preserved his autonomy.

“When you say obedience…”

“I’m not talking about saying jump and you jump.  Think more like an extension of loyalty.  You’ll make a reasonable & good faith effort to execute my instructions.  You’ll have a duty to inform me of anything that you think is vital to our purposes-”

“I’m not going to betray my family.”  Sam’s eyes narrowed and some of the polite warmth in his voice was replaced with helpless frustration.

“That’s fair.  If you find yourself with a legitimate conflict of interest -something that would seriously harm your family- then you have to let me know and I’ll find a way to work around it.”

“You’ll go behind my back.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to find out.  Close enough to fair?”

"Also, you won't do anything unnatural to my mind, without my informed consent.  And you will answer my questions- if I'm going to be working for you I'm going to need a lot of information."

Crowley smiled in appreciation of Sam’s late additions.

"I like your instincts.  It'd be a shame to screw them up by fiddling with your mind.  Let me get some people looking for your family’s sanctuary and then we can hammer out the details."

There was a knock on the office door, then after Crowley’s invitation a demon brought in a scroll of parchment.  Crowley took the scroll and read it for several minutes.  One corner of his mouth turned downward.  He asked the underling a question in Abyssal.  The demon reported about something at length and Crowley nodded thoughtfully before dismissing the subordinate.

"The results from our rescue mission."  Crowley held up the scroll.  "Which would you like to hear first: the good news, the bad news, or the unexpected news?"

* * *

Once the boilerplate & basics of their contract was in place, Crowley insisted on running a few experiments to see how best to market Sam to the other Archdemons within the Central District.  After checking on the status of the personnel movement from the rescue mission, Crowley led Sam back to the throne room to explore the issue in the forefront of their minds.  

As much as Sam could appreciate the need to find out what was going on with the tree & him, he wasn’t thrilled about the situation.  He didn’t like the idea of performing for Crowley, but that was more or less the backbone of their agreement.  For a fleeting moment, he considered trying to call off the deal, but he wasn’t sure if that was even possible at that point.  He would just have to swallow his pride and play along.  So far Crowley wasn’t being unreasonable, he was just being annoyingly thourogh.

Sam eyed Mir for a few seconds before cautiously walking toward the throne.  He could feel the subtle pull, but now that he was aware of it, he found that he could resist the throne’s siren song with just minor effort.  This time, when he placed his hand on the black wood, he was better prepared for the slight rush it provided.  

He turned around to face the hall and sat down.  The carved wooden seat had no business being so comfortable.  It gave him a strange familiar feeling, like he might have for the sensation of the Impala's seats.  But he'd never been on this throne- or any throne before.  Still, it called back to something like a memory that made him feel composed & content.

Looking up and turning his torso slightly, Sam could see that the tree was slowly lightening.  Within minutes its bark had turned the same white that he’d seen earlier from the corner of his eye.  After a few more minutes, tiny red buds began to form on the smallest branches.  He sat there in perfect silence watching them bloom with rapt attention for who knows how long.

When he finally managed to look away from the strangely beautiful sight he noticed the rest of the room.  Almost three dozen demons were standing in the hall, staring in awe.  While he had been distracted, various demons had been passing by the open doors to the hall and were drawn in by their curiosity.  They hardly seemed to notice him.  Their focus was entirely on the canopy of scarlet blossoms, which he realized was the most color he’d seen since arriving in Hell.

Crowley’s expression was both pleased & completely dumbfounded.  After a few minutes of initial shock, he turned to look at Sam with a slightly open mouthed smile.  

Looking back at the reactions of the other demons, he noticed a female demon among the crowd and waved her over to him.  He whispered something into where her ear should’ve been.  She nodded to him before he walked up to stand beside Sam.

"Tell them all to leave.  We need to talk."  Crowley whispered.  Sam was a little confused as to why Crowley didn't just ask the demons to leave himself, but he went along with it.

"Could you all go back to whatever it was that you were doing?"  Sam said uncertainly.  His words shook the demons out of their not quite trances.  They quickly scurried from the hall, taking last peeks on their way out.  Only Crowley, Mir, & the female demon remained.  Crowley flicked a wrist, causing the doors to the hall to close.  With their privacy renewed, the Archdemon got down to business.

"We need to work on your assertiveness."  Sam threw Crowley what Dean would’ve called a bitchface.  

“Yeah well, I wasn’t prepared to work a crowd- and I get the feeling you weren’t prepared for them either.”  Crowley had mentioned wanting to keep Sam’s presence as secret as possible until they were ready to act.  Only about twenty demons had seen him up to that point, but he’d merely been walking around.  

"The crowd was unexpected… We may have lost the element of surprise- but a bit of gossip might actually do us some good.  I'll wager in about twenty minutes all of Central will be talking about this."  Crowley chuckled.  "Some of us used to call you the Boy King of Hell just to piss Lilith off- that might actually be the best game plan we have.  I wish I could see the look on her face when she hears about this."

"King?  You can’t be serious?"  Sam slouched in his seat a little and covered his face with one hand.  "I signed on to pretend to be some Archdemon, glorified bureaucratic puppet with a name that your demons recognize.  I didn't sign on for this."  Sam gestured at the tree & throne, which he realized he was still sitting in.  He hastily got up, suddenly very self-conscious of his behavior.

"Technically, you just signed up to be loyal & obedient to me.  We didn't print your business cards yet.  You getting stage fright doesn't change that.  As long as it makes more strategic sense for you to take a different role, that's what we're going with."

"There's a difference between Archdemon & King of Hell.  You’re putting my life at risk!"  Sam threw his hands up as he yelled at Crowley.  The female demon shifted slightly, but decided to not to jump into the tense conversation.  Mir’s head turned almost imperceptibly to give him a better view of Crowley.

"Please- your life was already at risk.  You really think that some hunter or angel or Lilith is going to want to kill you less if we call you an Archdemon instead of King?  I’d wager Lilith's demons will be less inclined to kill you as King."

"Why would you even want me to be King?  Don't you & the other Arches want to be the ones in charge?"

"They'll still want a say, there's no doubt about that, but consolidated leadership could be just what we need right now.  The whole system has been thrown into chaos and is divided.  Even the friendly castes don't mingle with each other well, it's hard to rally a coalition government when you already have groups breaking away.  But you don't belong to a caste, no one & everyone could look to you- if we do this right."

"I don't like it."

"Welcome to Hell."

* * *

 Crowley motioned for the female demon to come forward.  Unlike most of the other demons Sam had seen, she didn't appear lopsided or vaguely disfigured.  If anything her features were somewhat streamlined & understated.  Instead of skin, her exterior looked like it was made of glass.  A single smooth cowl of the same material grew from her upper back & shoulders, alluding to what may have been hair, but he wasn’t quite sure.  Despite the inhuman effect, Sam noticed her symmetry & appreciated that she probably chose to look that way.

"This is Shola, one of my top aides.  She mostly handles unusual deals."  Crowley’s tone during the introduction was nearly proud.

"You were the one at Bobby's house."  Sam recognized her... presence?  

"Yes, I made the deal with your brother to assist him in locating you."  She smiled politely.

"She's very resourceful and, almost more importantly at the moment, she's generally considered nice.  That's why she'll be assisting you until you get settled."  She gave Crowley a sidelong glance at the 'nice' comment, but didn't complain.  Sam wondered how much of an insult that sort of comment was in Hell and if Crowley's willingness to throw the phrase around was actually a sign of confidence.  "Now if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I need to check in with three of the other Arches before the gossip runs too far afield."

"And what am I supposed to do?"  Asked Sam as Crowley began walking towards one of the back doors out of the great hall.

"Exercise your patience, you'll need it in fighting shape."  Crowley said as he exited the room.

Sam eyed Shola as he strolled around the massive tree, uncertain of what else to do.  He dragged his palm along the bark, creating a fading white ring.  Within a minute of him getting out of the seat, it had reverted to its black coloration and the flowers had withered to ash.  When he completed a circuit around the tree, he sat back down on the throne to watch the transformation again.

"So, you're my handler when Crowley's busy."

"Essentially yes."  Shola admitted.  "But I believe that you will find me to be valuable beyond merely keeping you out of trouble."

"You two are expecting me to cause trouble?"  Sam felt a little insulted, but in all honesty the thought had crossed his mind before remembering he was under contract not to flip all the switches regardless of the consequences.

"Mostly by accident, but since you aren't from around these parts, accidents are bound to happen."  

He nodded at her point.  There were so many things he didn’t understand that he barely knew where to begin filling in the gaps.  Over time he’d almost certainly pick up a lot of the rules, customs, & subtleties, but for now it made a lot of sense to have a babysitter.  And Crowley had been considerate enough to find him one that was both apparently competent and not entirely alienating.  

She stood about fifteen feet in front of him, alternating her attention between the tree and nothing in particular.  An awkward silence stretched between them.

“You’re not really sure what to do either?”  Sam suggested.  “I take it that you don’t have to babysit people as part of your job.”

“Babysit is a bit of a strong word.”  She didn’t outright deny the characterization though.  “I’ve had to handhold a bit for some of my contracts.  I tend to have longer relationships with my clients than most Crossroads demon because of the unusual nature of my deals.”

“What about with Dean?”

“He was fairly hands off- he was uncomfortable with the whole demon aspect.  Bobby seemed very pleasant though.”  She took a step forward.  “I heard that they were involved in a fight with… the...”

“They’re both fine.”  Sam thought he saw a small smile grow on her face as she nodded and looked at the floor almost bashfully.  Her expression changed from comfort to something more unsettled.  

"If I may, sir-"

"Fuck- please don't call me sir."  He cringed and recoiled into the throne.  "Just call me Sam."

She looked around the hall for anyone else that might be observing them, then took a few more steps closer to him.

"It's customary for demons to adopt a different name than they used while alive.  I believe that you'll be asked to adopt Lucian in order to utilize the name recognition."

"I didn't die, I'm still me."  It was disturbing that he felt the need to clarify his ongoing status a living.

"I know... I just thought I'd warn you, since the Council might force the issue."

"Force the issue or force me?"

"Both."

He’d figured that might come up as a demand and he wasn't even sure how he felt about it.  There was something to be said for mitigating the association between the name Sam Winchester & Hell.  Though he wasn't exactly sure who he was trying to protect or impress.  His family would know soon enough the mess he'd gotten himself into and beyond that who else was there?  

The idea of word getting to Clare's gang of hunters that he'd become King of Hell was interesting.  It'd probably give them a sense of validation that made him sick, but on the flip side maybe he could take comfort in the idea of them feeling like failures.

A bigger concern would be how this might impact Dean or to a lesser extent Bobby.  Eventually the hunting community would find out and while he didn't particularly care, Dean & Bobby hadn't broken ties.  In fact, assuming that any of the network was still alive, the two of them were prominent figures.  Maybe some of the other hunters could be made to understand... or maybe they could lie about him- say that it was a trick or that they disowned him?  

He sighed at the unexpected facet of his new existence.  It was true that he'd closed the door on many of his relationships when he started running around with Ruby, but accepting this deal was bricking over the door once closed.  Regardless of what he let people call him, he would be condemned to a certain amount of isolation.

"Can you call me Sam?  Even if it's just in private.  I don't think I could take this entire place...  I don't think I could take all of this insanity without someone down here treating me normal."

"I'll do what I can to make this easier."  Her smile had returned, but it had the unmistakable hue of pity.  "If I may ask you a question-"

"If it's just us..."  Sam glanced over at the ever silent & stationery Mir, then shrugged.  "If it's just us, then go ahead and ask.  Don't be so damn formal with me, it makes me feel like you're drinking the kool aid."

"Have you really seen angels?"

"Yeah, one of them is with my family.  He's been helping to protect them from Heaven."  His mind had immediately jumped to Castiel, but it was quickly replaced with thoughts of the other angels.  Uriel & Tambriel, the massacre at the coven…  "I've killed several of them.  Why do you want to know?  I thought Hell has anti-angel protection?"

"Oh, I'm not worried about an attack.  I was just..."  Sam could sense her shifting anxiously below her calm shell.  "I had hoped…  I believed it, but to know...  They’re actually real- I have so many questions.  Do they hear prayers?"

"I don't know.  I haven't asked Castiel about that kind of stuff.  If you're really curious, I can talk to him about it next time I see him."

"Please.  Could you… could you ask him, if they do hear prayers, do they hear all of them?"

Sam stared at her in mild disbelief.  Her air of anxiety was replaced with a combination of passion & desperation.  She had a vested interest in the answer to her question.

"You pray?"

"Yes."

"But we're in Hell- you're a demon.  Aren't angels & Heaven your natural enemy?"

"I certainly hope not."  She exhaled something resembling a weak laugh, but he could tell that the thought upset her.  Her shoulders sunk subtly and her shell lost some of its vividness.

"If you think that angels are good or something to admire, I hate to break it to you, but you're wrong."  Sam's tone was bitter.  “They killed children..."

Shola's brow furrowed in disappointed understanding.  Closing her eyes, she processed the new information.  Sam felt bad about breaking this to her, but he started feeling worse as he began to sense just how much pain the realization was causing her.

"The things that came here destroyed seven hundred demons & a thousand souls in a matter of minutes.  They were horrific.  That kind of..."  She shook her head. "I don't want to be their enemy for so many reasons.  They scare me- they scare all of us, but it’s more than that.  I think what they're doing is wrong... but they’re angels and I’m the demon.  What if I really am the villain after all?  I've been trying to do my best to stay true in spite of the role that God has given me... maybe I've been misguided."

In many ways he could sympathize with her crisis, and in other ways he didn’t understand how she could have more faith in the angels than herself.  He had felt betrayal & loss too, but she had turned the hurt inward.  Sam had seen the differences between himself & the angels as a reflection on the angels because he was confident in his own position, but faced with that same disparity Shola felt it was a reflection on herself.  It made sense that she would doubt herself before all of Heaven, she was a woman of faith trying to be the “nice” demon in Hell.  

"You’re supposed to help me, right?”  She looked up at Sam, drawn out from her anguish.  “How long have you been a demon?”

“Earth time, a little over 500 years.”  She spoke softly, unsure of what he was getting at.

“Okay, you’ve been fighting for centuries or millennia to stay good in a place like this and I need your help to stay good too.”  She opened her mouth, but Sam cut her off.  “I don’t care if some creatures we don’t see eye to eye with wear haloes.  They can’t help me down here.  You’re my best chance at trying to stop this place from changing me into something I don’t want to be.  I need you to help keep me good.  Don’t let their failure damn us both.”

She thought for a long while as a soft smile formed at the little bit of confidence his faith had renewed in her.

“Thank you.  Sometimes it can be hard to remember why we made the choices we did- that my truth is between me & God, I do it for us alone... not even for the angels.”  She chuckled.  “Though, I think it helps that my subordinates would eat me alive if I stopped being ‘the nice one’.”

“I would’ve thought being nice was a sign of weakness in Hell.”  Sam raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe in some parts, but not necessarily in the Crossroads.  Being a sadist makes the job easier, but I've never found it to be a requisite.  If I had to be brutal to get what I want, then I wouldn't be very good at my job."

"Part of the reason you’re nice to show everyone else that you're better than them?"

"Only a little, mostly I like to be nice to show myself I'm better than I feared."

* * *

 They descended the stone staircase into what Sam immediately recognized as a cell block.  The dim light and colder air gave an unnaturally constricting sensation that reminded him of being clutched by a ghost.  One of the cells emitted the sounds of raspy breathing, which begged the question of whether demons really needed to breathe or if that prisoner was so badly injured that they reflectively manifested the symptom.  Unlike the featureless doors on the levels above, these doors included barred windows.  Sam touched the metal bars.

"Iron."  Crowley explained as he followed an assistant down the hallway.  

Introductions to the other Archdemons had been postponed until all of the allied Archdemons could be assembled at once.  Of the eight Archdemons in the alliance, aside from Crowley, only four were in mostly working order.  Palim's successor was still being selected, Denerus was recovering from injuries, & Weller’s caste had agreed to wait another week before officially changing his status from missing to deceased.  Sam was given permission to return topside while the revised Council finished regrouping, but only after briefly consulting on an unusual discovery.

"So, how long have you known Eric?"  Crowley asked.

"Brady."  Sam corrected.  "We were friends in college, but I dropped out of communication with him after I started hunting again."

"Then why'd he make your list of people to save?"

"I've kept tabs on him.  A few times I thought I'd eventually get back in touch with him, but things never really came together-"

"Until now."  Crowley smirked.  “Lucky you.”

"Has he said anything?"

"Nothing useful.”

They reached the last cell on the block and the assistant unlocked the door.  Crowley entered, followed by Sam.  The cell's walls, ceiling, & the inside face of the door were covered in what looked like razor blades that Sam was certain were iron.  Two demons stood as guards just inside the doorway.

Seated in the lone chair at the center of the room was a demon that reclined with a proud sort of indifference to having been taken prisoner.  His shell bore gashes & bruises that hinted at some earlier interrogation.  In spite of his beating, he beamed with a smugness that Sam immediately recognized from some of Brady's less flattering moments.

"Sam?  Of all the people, in all the places..."  The demon's laughter made Sam's stomach knot in a mixture of anger & nostalgia.

"What did you do to Brady?"  Sam's voice was quiet, which unintentionally gave the appearance of vulnerability.  The prisoner sat up, incrementally emboldened.

"Please, I am Brady, or at least I have been since sophomore year.  The whining little trust fund piss-ant, he barely even knew your name before I got to him."

"Why?  Why did-"  Sam couldn't understand why a demon would get close to him and not kill him.  They'd known each other for almost three years.  Brady had even been there for him during hard times, done him favors, he'd...  "You introduced me to Jess!"

"She was so pure and innocent... and trusting."  Brady grinned.  "She thought I was her friend, when she let me in the night I killed her."

Sam stepped forward with a fist ready to swing, but Crowley moved to intercept him.  Sam stopped himself, but looked to the Archdemon for insight.  Crowley had his back turned to Brady and mouthed the words 'not yet' to Sam.  Sam looked back to Brady, a bit confused about why he was being asked to hold off on the beating.  His rage was still simmering below the surface, but shock & confusion was getting the upper hand.  He visibly suppressed his anger, which Brady seemed unable to fully appreciate.

"Why?"  Sam managed.

"Azazel needed you back in the game.  You were his favorite after all..."  Brady demeanor turned sharp & resentful.  To his surprise, Sam could sense the cloud below Brady’s shell glowering.  "But Azazel's dead and you- you're not the leader we were promised.  The other demons, they might call you Lucian and think you're what we need, but I know you.  I know your secret-  you're weak.  Everything I say is cutting you to pieces because you take on guilt & pain like a sponge.  You'll never have the strength Lilith has because you lack conviction-"

Sam grabbed Brady with his powers and squeezed.  Brady writhed & screamed, but Sam silenced him.  The urge to just throttle Brady was overwhelming- for Jess, for the betrayal, for serving him up to Azazel-  

"Careful with the goods, we need him for information."  Crowley placed a hand on Sam's arm trying to calm him down.

"He's not as high up the chain of command as you think."  Sam may have been talking rationally, but anger was curling his lips into a snarl.

"How do you figure that?  He was one of Azazel's agents at least eight years ago.  That's a pretty small crowd."

"He doesn't know what I've done- what I can do.  He's heard some rumors, but if he knew what I've been up to he'd see how much things have changed... We were best friends after all."  Crowley & the other demons eyed Brady, who shrunk slightly.  Sam squeezed again, harder this time, and the surface of Brady's body began to flicker translucent & hairline fractures began to form.  Below the damaged exterior, the smoky corrupted soul swirled franticly.  

"You're going to kill him."  Said Crowley in a raised voice that didn’t quite summon enough effort to be considered a shout.  He wasn't particularly concerned for Brady, but the display of Sam's powers was mildly alarming.

"He wishes."  Sam growled.

"Even if he doesn't know the latest on you, he might still have valuable information."  Crowley warned in a tone that was so calm & mild that it was jarring within the vicious setting.  Sam relaxed his grip on Brady, who crumpled to the floor.  Crowley stepped forward, then used the toe of his right dress shoe to tilt his prisoner's face up towards his own.  "I suggest you prove me right, otherwise I'm going to just let Sam here work out some aggression."

"I've been stuck in Palo Alto- I haven't-"  but Crowley silenced Brady by placing the sole of his shoe over the prisoner's mouth.  The Archdemon’s brow furrowed at a thought.

"I don't understand.  You two haven't seen each other in over five years.  So why are you still stuck riding the same meatsuit, living the tame life around the same neighborhood?"

"Lilith told me to stay in it and keep playing along- that we might need the body to draw Sam out."

"Draw me out?  I spent eight months chasing her all over.  If she had trouble drawing me out, then-".  Sam argued, but was interrupted by Brady.

"She wasn't ready."  Crowley raised an eyebrow as he looked back at Sam.

"For what?"

"For the final seal, she wasn't ready to break it."

"What?"  A chill went down Sam's spine.  They'd been wondering what the last seal might be.  Castiel had suggested that Lilith's minions weren't tasked with it because it might not happen on Earth, but they had accidentally included an assumption into that reasoning.  They thought their sixty four seals intel was encompassing the entire picture of her minions' activities, but she really did have more special players on the sidelines waiting for their turn... and Brady's turn had something to do with him.

"When she was ready, your bestie Brady was going to go missing.”  Brady’s voice rattled, possibly from his injuries.  “We were going to make it a huge news story, so you’d hear about it.  You'd investigate, be drawn out, and then she'd kill you."

"The last seal is her killing me?"  Sam’s rage had faded into dread.

"Or you killing her. 'The first of the two seasons shall meet in battle and at the end of one, the sunrise on the field of death shall be the light of our father.'  It doesn't matter who comes out on top.  As soon as she's done with number 65, she's going to come for you."

* * *

 Sam appeared in the living room of the rundown apartment where the rest of the group was still hunkered down.  It had been three hours since he had disappeared with barely a goodbye.  Dean immediately got up from the kitchen table where he'd been talking with Bobby & Castiel, then hugged his little brother.  After the embrace that embodied Dean's relief, he left go and shove Sam hard in the chest.

"For fuck's sake, Sam!  What did you do?"  Dean yelled at him.  His anger came from a place of helplessness & fear.  Knowing that, Sam didn't have any hostility to return and tried to accept whatever frustration was going to come his.  Bobby & Castiel watched their interaction, but didn't attempt to get involved just yet.

"Did you get a good deal?"  Asked Ruby.  She was standing in the doorway to the hall, holding Kaylee.  Her expression was unreadable, which signaled to Sam that she could easily be as upset as Dean.  He'd seen her yell & fume with rage, but it was when she was too quiet that he knew to be concerned.

"We'll find out."  Sam said helplessly.

"Fucking hell."  Dean covered his face with his hand.

"Did you sell your soul?"  Bobby asked what they'd all been wondering.

"Not in the normal countdown until hellhounds way.  I'm going to help Crowley- in Hell."  Dean & Bobby looked defeated, while Ruby continued to have that unsettlingly reserved expression.  "In exchange, they went out trying to protect our friends that I thought might be in danger.  There's a place where everyone can be safe and they have an idea for mobile protection too.  It's not perfect, but it's better than being trapped in this little shitty apartment while people out there are dying and Lilith is trying to bust out Lucifer."

"How long will you have to be in Hell?"  Asked Ruby.

"The current plan is six hours a day- Earth time, possibly more in an emergency."

"How long is six hours in Hell time?"  Dean knew that time ran longer down there, but he'd never really bothered to figure out the ratio.

"About thirty days."  Said Ruby.  Dean paced for a moment and bit his knuckle to stop himself from cursing.

"So what, you get like eighteen hours here for every month down there?  For how long?"  Asked Dean, but he already knew the answer.

"If things get better down there, I might be able to be topside more, but in terms of being on the hook for going down at all: until I die... maybe longer depending on which direction I go."  Sam talking around the issue of his potential damnation didn’t escape anyone.

"Dammit Sammy, you should've talked to us first!"  Dean's resentment of the situation was becoming muddied with his pity for his brother, but it also revived some of the feelings of betrayal.  Sam had gone behind his back again- it was a forced & desperate decision, but it still hurt to be completely left out of the conversation.  In spite of the pain, Dean tried to keep focused on expressing concern for Sam rather than real anger.

"I couldn't take it.  We were trapped here while they're out killing our friends because of me.  We can't stay here forever.  We needed to be able to regroup, have a place where we could bring our friends who're still alive.  I had the chance to keep my family safe, what's to talk about?"  Sam knew that it was a lot for them to hear, but he just spent what felt like days working to find them a solution and this degree of pushback surprised him.

"And what about you?  Do you have any idea what spending all that time in Hell is going to do to you?  You don't know what it's like down there."  Dean's voice rose & cracked.  It'd been one of his highest priorities to keep Sammy from the pit and through some crazy turn he'd managed to fail.  It would be funny if it wasn't so sad- Sam always did have a way of beating the odds and ending up in outrageous situations.  

"They're not going to be torturing me, I just have to helping keep the place from falling apart."  Sam threw his hands out in mild exasperation.  It was bad, but the deal wasn't anything like Dean's deal and he wanted to find a way to convince them.  

"You just have to help them keep the torture machine running- and you think there's anyway that that isn't going to eat you alive?!"  He wasn't even thinking about Sam's special circumstances, just the intrinsic stress & strain created by such an unhealthy environment.  Sam had always been the sensitive one- the pure one, in an apparently backward way, and now he was going to spend nearly all his time in the most corrupting place imaginable.

"It might, but that's my burden to bare."  Sam's voice grew definitive.

"Bullshit!  That's on all of us- you've got people in your life that care about you and we're not turning our backs.  You're prepared to sacrifice yourself for us, well maybe we don't want to see you go through this!"

Kaylee started crying, silencing the argument.  Sam closed his eyes for a poignant moment before looking at Ruby.  She rocked their daughter a little, but she couldn't stop the crying.  Sam walked over and extended his arms, offering to take Kaylee.  Ruby gave him the baby, then watched him in contemplation for several seconds as he soothed Kaylee back to sleep.

"How long before you're due back?"  She asked with tension in her voice that worried Sam.

"I've got 12 hours to get us all moved over and figured out.  After that I’m going to be gone for a day or so, then it switches to the six hours per day rotation."  He knew that Ruby could instantly convert the “a day or so” into the subjective span of several months, and that it would take Bobby & Dean no time at all to figure that out if they wanted to.  If anyone was thinking critically enough they’d know that he was going to be facing something big.  

Ruby glanced at Dean & Bobby, then looked back to Sam.  He was standing uncertainly in the middle of the room.  Kaylee was clutched almost nervously to his chest.  The expression on his face was vulnerability & confusion.  He was waiting for her to lay into him and she decided to accept his full attention.

"When we talked about whether or not to have the kid, you said that I could leave if the situation wasn't right for me."  It was like Ruby had dropped a bomb with the sentence.  Sam's heart lurched and he was suddenly faced with an entirely new type of fear.  Dean & Bobby both froze, uncertain of where the conversation was going and what the couple had previously agreed to.  "I could leave and what, Dean or Bobby would have to babysit almost half their time- every single day?  You didn't even talk to them or me?  I'm not saying that you have to take care of Kaylee 24/7, but they didn't sign on to have a kid and I never promised to stay."

"You... you might leave?"  Sam had been shaken to his core by the thought.

"I'm not leaving, not anytime soon.  But you better remember that this is a give & take relationship- same between you & them."  Ruby gestured at Bobby & Dean.  "I'm going to keep trying to make this work, but if you make decisions about my life or Kaylee's life without at least consulting me first... I don't know what I'd do.  We're a team, remember that."

Sam nodded in solemn understanding.  It was true that among the people currently standing in the room, he’d had the bargaining power with Crowley, yet he wasn't the only one with an interest in the outcome.  He'd made such a big deal about wanting to support his family that he'd forgotten how much they support him in turn.  Dean had barely told him anything about his time in Hell and Ruby still bore emotional scars even after centuries to adjust.  He wanted to help them recover from the trauma, but it hadn't occurred to him that they'd be trying to support him in real time, which could prove just as bad or maybe even worse.

After a few seconds, Ruby moved closer to him and wrapped an arm around his torso in a partial hug.  His free arm pulled her tight to him and he kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to make things better."  He whispered into her hair.

"I know, you always are."

* * *

December 16, 2009 10:35am

Catching the group up on Crowley’s plan and the development with Brady was easier than Sam had expected.  After the initial venting of frustration, everyone calmed down and tried to be supportive as best they could.  They were all beyond fatigued, which let them take the news in relatively quiet contemplation.  After the recap, Sam began talking about their strategy going forward.

"I hate to say it, but I think we have to plan like I really am Lucian.  If we don't and it turns out to be true, we could get screwed fast."

"You playing along in Hell is one thing, but us going with it is another."  Dean crossed his arms and chewed his lip slightly.  “I don’t care what some book or demon politicians says, you’re my brother- neither of us want me treating you like you’re some champion of Hell.”

"I mean you don’t have to treat me any different- please don’t.  It’s just that for defense & strategizing going forward it makes a difference.  The last seal is a showdown between Lilith & Lucian.  If one of them kills the other, we have until the next sunrise before Lucifer is freed.  If I'm really Lucian, I can't just be treating her like any other enemy."  Sam rubbed the back of his neck.  "I can't fight her on Earth- ever.  And I can't let her get the jump on me.  Somebody else has to be the one to kill her.  She's too smart to fight me in Hell- there's no sunrise in Hell.  Morrison thinks it has to happen on Earth."

"So you went from being the best person to fight her to the worst."  Bobby bemoaned.

"Until someone else shows up claiming to be Lucian I don't know what else to think.  Her betting money is on me and I don't want to give her a chance to be proven right."  

"You're going to have to stay off the grid up here- until we can find & kill her for you."  Dean said, then he remembered that the angels would still be hunting Sam even if Lilith was taken care of.  “Sammy, you really have a gift for making people want to kill you.”

"Yeah, I know."  Sam rewrapped part of Kaylee's blanket.  "I'm extra, extra out of commission on Earth...  It doesn't change that much when it comes down to it.  The stakes are just higher if things go wrong with Lilith."

"I'll see if I can figure out how to ask around online about the demon scene on Earth without alerting the angels."  Offered Bobby.

"If Crowley's people turn anything up, I'll forward it to you.”  Sam felt a little weird about already offering the services of demons, but he shrugged it off as something he’d need to get used to eventually.  “But that still doesn't deal with how to kill Lilith.  She's going to be pretty untouchable.  And even if we find her, I'm the only one that's immune to her light beam thing."

"I am not entirely immune to the Light of Hell, but it might not kill me.  I could fight Lilith."  Suggested Castiel.  The angel had been silently standing back from the main circle of discussion and the others had largely forgotten he was even there.  

"'Might not' kill you is a pretty big risk."  Said Dean with renewed concern.  "You're probably the most powerful weapon we have against Lilith and you’re telling us that she might be able to kill you?”

"We do not know if the Light of Hell is lethal to all angels or if Sam's use of his power was unique in that way.  Also, I am weaker since falling and maybe more susceptible to harm."

“I’ll reach out to Morrison, depending on what he’s already got in the works, I might be able to work on something to either help kill Lilith or angels, or maybe protect against the beams.”  Ruby shrugged in response to all of the guys glancing at Kaylee.  “Just because I’m staying doesn’t mean that I’m going to be a stay at home mom- I’ve got shit to do.  Someone needs to level the playing field for you boys.”

“Level the playing field for all of us.”  Sam added in an attempt to not be accidentally exclude Ruby.

“Please, I’m good already- you never asked me how many angels I took down at the coven.”  She smiled softly up at Sam, who huffed out a little chuckle and kissed her forehead.

"So what, Ruby, Bobby & Crowley will research.  Castiel is going to train or research or whatever to get ready for ganking Lilith.  Meanwhile Sam’s going to try to convince Hell he’s Lucian?"  Asked Dean, refocusing the conversation.

"About that...  The surviving members of the Council want me to use the name while down there because of the weight it carries for some demons, but I'm not sure..."  Sam paused for a moment to gather some courage.  "I'm not sure how much convincing it'll really take...  There's something about me that I don't understand, but a few things clicked when I was down there."

"What?"  

"It's not like I liked it- it's just that the parts of me that are strange up here weren't down there."  Sam avoided Dean’s eyes while he was speaking, but after the confession was out he shook off some of the shame.

"You mean the Abyssal in you?"  Bobby asked.

"I guess.  I mean, I used my powers and it didn't hurt or make me tired.  It felt... I felt normal.  I didn't feel... corrupted."

Ruby's warm attentiveness wilted slightly at Sam’s words.  He shot her an apologetic glance, but Dean didn't notice the subtle conflict and continued talking.

"Sammy, you don't feel bad because you're surrounded by worse.  You shouldn't be giving in to those feelings.  If you start using demons as your yard stick about what's right, then you're in big trouble."

"I'm not just blowing off my morals- it's not really like that."  Sam thought about telling them about Shola, but he didn't feel like getting into the whole crisis of faith talk just then.  It was a conversation better saved for a quiet evening possibly over a beer… or an entire six-pack.

"I just don't want them suckering you in by playing nice or some other trick."  Dean's voice had the softness of good natured concern rather than being dismissive of Sam's willpower.  Sam smiled weakly at Dean in a way that he hoped was reassuring.

"They're definitely trying to manipulate me, I know that, but it's more than that... Hell & I fit together in a weird way... I can touch the throne."  They all looked surprised by the news, but Ruby & Castiel were both visibly shocked.  "I actually sat on it.  The Seat- it's actually a big dead tree... Well, it's not dead, not when I touch it.  It's been dead for as long as any of the demons can remember, but when I... It bloomed... it was beautiful."

Ruby gripped Sam’s sleeve and moved her mouth, as if to speak, but the words didn't come at first.  

"But… nothing in Hell is beautiful."

* * *

 "So, we've got a new place to hide out and you said something about protecting our friends too- you mean some of the other hunters?"  Bobby asked, eager to focus on the positive side of Sam's deal.

"I tried to cover all the hunters that might be traced to me.  I had Crowley’s people try to find and get them to safety... The ones they were able to rescue were moving to a secure location."  Sam pointed toward a duffel that he’d brought with him, but went unnoticed in the emotional reunion.  "We have some angel caliber hex bags to avoid detection.  Maybe Castiel can take Dean & Bobby to go explain things to them- Ruby should probably go too.  There are two hunters & three of the expat coven members."

“Only two?”  Exhaled Bobby in anguish.

"Ellen & Jo?"  Dean asked hopefully.

Sam just shook his head.  He'd nearly broke down at the news that they had been killed.  Based on Crowley's report they had probably died shortly after the attack on the coven.  Even though he hadn't seen them in over two years, the thought of them being murdered and left to rot for a whole day was incredibly upsetting.  They were the closest thing he'd known to a mother & sister, they really were family.

"I had their bodies moved somewhere safe.  We can give them traditional pyres."  Sam ran his fingers through his hair.  “I thought they’d have wanted...”

Dean turned away from the group, then yelled as he punched a wall, putting his fist through the softened drywall.  As he began pulling his bleeding hand from the hole, he gripped the wall and rested his forehead against it.  Belda came out from the larger bedroom at the noise.

"What happened?"

"We lost some more friends."  She nodded in intimate understanding of the pain they felt.  As she made to return to the bedroom, Sam reached out a hand to stop her.  "Actually, we managed to locate three coven members.  Do you know Isabelle Blair, Florence Marin, or Aimee Gramont?"

"Aimé!  He's alive?"  Belda covered her open mouth with her hand and then made a slight fanning motion to dry her watering eyes.  "He's my brother."

Dean looked over at Belda with a strange combination of gratitude & envy.  She seemed like a nice enough woman, who'd just been through an ordeal.  Yet he couldn't help but feel like his life was cursed to  never catch the easy breaks.  He wrapped a spare rag around his hand until he could ask Cas to heal it properly.

"He's safe.  You'll be able to see him in a bit, after we've relocated someplace safer."  Ruby said in reassurance.  "Do you know Isabelle & Florence?"

"Isa’s a park ranger somewhere in Alaska.  She's really nice & outdoorsy…”  Belda closed her eyes while considering how much more to say.  “She also had a reputation for being one of the best recreational alchemists around."

"Recreational alchemist?"  Dean asked.

"She makes drugs?"  Sam guessed, recalling that over half of the adults in the coven had used one variety of intoxicant or another at the bonfire.

"I always found her very high functioning, but yeah."  Belda shrugged.  "Flo... that might be interesting.  She's an engineer, but I don't know what she does exactly- other than something that involves security clearance.  It took a lot of work for the coven to get her through all of the background checks.  I've probably only seen her two or three times since she left for college."

"Did we just kidnap a spy?"  Dean asked Sam, who looked surprisingly concerned by the thought considering where grabbing Florence had fallen on the spectrum of his day's events.

"She's an engineer, so she's probably a contractor."  Suggested Bobby.  "But what kind is a good question."

“You know what, Belda should go greet the three of them instead of me.  They haven’t seen me in this meatsuit and we shouldn’t be wasting time trying to get them to trust us.  Sam & I can watch the litter while you’re all gone, then we can move everyone to the new place in a few groups.”

“Are you going to be okay?”  Asked Belda, stopping just short of offering to stay.

“We’ll be fine, just try not to take too long, Sam’s on a schedule.”

After handing out hex bags, Cas teleported Dean, Bobby, & Belda to the warehouse where the survivors were being held.  Isabelle, Florence, & Aimé all immediately recognized and were briefed by Belda.  Bobby & Dean explained the situation to Rufus Turner & Tamara Chikenzie.  In the end Rufus & Tamara both opted to take hex bags and do their best dodging angels on the road, but all three expat witches accepted the invitation to stay with the remnants of their old coven.

* * *

 The sanctuary that Crowley's people found was a small lakeside resort in the middle of the Canadian wilderness that was warded in nearly every way imaginable.  It wasn't clear if the resort had been abandoned or if all of the previous occupants had been killed- Sam was grateful that no one asked.  In some ways it reminded Sam of the camp that Ruby's coven had lived in, which he hoped would make the transition easier for the children.

There were a dozen wooden cabins and what had probably been a visitor center.  Half of the cabins were on the edge of the lake, complete with small piers.  The cabins varied in size, between one and four bedrooms, and came fully furnished.  To Sam’s relief, Crowley had held up his end of the bargain in ensuring the habitability of their new home.

Dean, Bobby, Florence, & Isabelle all took one bedroom cabins.  Bobby beat Florence in a game of target shooting for the nicer of the two one bedroom cabins overlooking the lake, though Dean pointed out that Bobby's win was by a narrow margin.  

Castiel didn't claim a cabin since he had no need for possessions or sleep.  Instead he seemed to be content merely loitering throughout the camp.  While the others were figuring out living arrangements, he stood on one of the piers and watched the lake in contemplation of things that the others didn't even guess at.  

Belda suggested that she try to stay in the same cabin with as many of the children as possible.  She claimed one of the four bedroom cabins and attempted to divide up the rooms to accommodate all the children.  Aimé & she each took a bedroom to share with one of the two infants.  As she attempted to divide up the remaining two bedrooms between the five older children, it was obvious that they were staring down a tight fit with three kids in a single room.  She decided to consult Ruby, who was looking through the smaller cabins.

When they had arrived at the camp, Tom had anxiously taken Ruby's hand and opted to explore with her & Sam.  After a few minutes of apparent safety, Tom had become emboldened enough to let go of Ruby, but he stayed close by.  When Belda peeked her head into the living room of the cabin Ruby & Sam were looking over, Tom was exploring one of the bedrooms.

"Rubahnali, can I talk to you for a moment?"  Belda asked quietly, uncertain if the couple had claimed the cabin and she was entering their personal space.

"Sure, what's up?"  Ruby stopped investigating the contents of the kitchen's cupboards and walked across the combination kitchen, dining room, & living room.  Sam came out of one of the bedrooms at the sound of voices.

"I was planning on using one of the four bedroom cabins for Aimé, the children, & myself, but I don't think we'll fit.  I was hoping to keep the older kids two to a room since most of them are still recovering- I think keeping them close together would be best for now.  The whole trauma has caused a lot of attachment issues and it'd probably be easier on them if they're close together until things get settled down. But I'm going to have to split them between two smaller cabins so that we don't have overcrowding in one of the bedrooms.  Is it okay to take two cabins or do you think we should try to leave them open if we have anymore refugees?"

"I'm not sure who else would be arriving, but if it comes to it we could always move people around."  Sam offered.  He wasn't sure who else would get pulled into their mess, but there was a possibility that once Bobby got back into contact with the hunters network that there'd be a few more people in need of protection.

"Which cabins were you thinking?"  Asked Ruby as she considered the ones she'd been looking at for her, Sam, & Kaylee.

"There's a two bedroom across from a three bedroom on the end.  I figure they should be as close together as possible, so Aimé can get me if he needs help.  Three kids with Aimé & four with me."

"You gonna be okay outnumbered four to one?  I know you'll be getting help during the day, but still."  Sam said with a newfound appreciation for her endurance after watching the children when she was away collecting Aimé, Isa, & Flo.

"I'll manage or after the third night without sleep I'll start slipping them under your doors."  Belda joked, but she did have small bags of fatigue forming under her eyes.

"We can figure out a way to make this work.  You shouldn't have to take so much of the burden with the kids."  Ruby gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Bobby & Isa have both offered to help with the children during the day.  It's the nights that I'm more worried about.  I feel bad for Aimé, he'll be juggling three without me- I know I'm only across the way, but he's only ever watched one kid at a time before."

Tom crept out of the bedroom he'd been looking over.  He approached Belda cautiously in a way that reminded Sam of when he'd first met the boy.  The three adults watched him as he shifted from foot to foot nervously.  After a moment of hesitation he looked up at Belda with resolve.

"Could I stay here?"  He asked, but only received confused looks.  "With Sam & Ruby."

The three adults exchanged surprised glances.  Belda opened her mouth to say something, but it wasn't really her place to grant or deny Tom's request.  Ruby looked at Sam, who raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in an armless shrug.  Neither of them were particularly against the suggestion, but it was unexpected.

"Are you sure you wouldn't want to stay with the other kids?"  Asked Ruby.

"Is the baby staying with you?"  Tom looked up at Kaylee, who was sleeping in Sam's arms.

"Well, yeah-"

"I want to help with the baby.  Dean said he was helping with Sam when he was even younger than me."  Sam thought back to Tom sneaking into his room at the apartment after having nightmares and suspected that the boy's motivation wasn't solely to help with Kaylee.  He'd also been through a trauma like Belda had said, but instead of clinging to the other children, he'd been largely inseparable from his two rescuers.

Sam looked at Ruby, who gave a small shrug.  She wasn't indifferent as such- she liked Tom after all.  He was a good kid that Sam had a nice little friendship with and he wanted to help take care of Kaylee.  Even if it was a surprise to have him stay with them it wasn't as bad as it had been a few hours earlier, when they were sharing an apartment with over a dozen people.  

Once things settled down more and the kids felt safer, there would probably be a reshuffling of the living arrangements.  At that point Tom could figure out what he wanted to do in the long term.  Until then, he could stay with them if he wanted and they would have an extra set of hands to help with Kaylee.

"Okay... Sure."

"I already found my room!"  Tom shouted through the first smile he'd had since the attack as he ran into one of the bedrooms.

* * *

 It took a few hours to get more or less everything sorted out in the camp.  To everyone's delight, all the kitchens & bathrooms in the camp came fully stocked.  Belda made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the children while Isa made the closest thing she could to oxtail stew.  Both sets of comfort food pleased their audiences, who ate in the converted visitors center.  

The dinner was cathartic in many ways.  The children ran around playing tag, fueled by sugar and the thrill of having open space again.  More in depth introductions were made with Aimé, Isa, & Flo.  A few beers were consumed, which opened the floodgates to embarrassing childhood stories.  Eventually, Dean & Flo devolved into a friendly competition over who knew the most about firearms, which amused Sam & Bobby to no end.

As the sky darkened, the stress of the last few days caught up with everyone, resulting in an earlier night.  Dean gave Sam a long hug and pat on the cheek before stumbling off to try to figure out which cabin was his.  Bobby hugged Sam, then patted a few of the kids' heads affectionately as he called it a night.  Belda & Aimé herded the children off to the biggest cabin with only a few straying.  Isa & Flo snuck off to Isa's cabin while snickering and talking in Dagbani.  After getting back to their cabin, Tom quickly hugged Sam & Ruby respectively then ran off to the bedroom he'd claimed.  

Sam made a little ritual of putting Kaylee down for the night, for the first time in a real crib in something resembling a real home.  He sang Hey Jude because Dean had mentioned that their mom used to sing it to them, but Sam wasn't quite sure of all the words.  After running out of known lyrics and probably repeating a few sections too many times, he switched to singing songs he was more familiar with.  Kaylee finally fell asleep partway into How Low by Jose Gonzalez.  He watched her silently for a few minutes before looking for Ruby.

He found Ruby continuing her investigation of the small kitchen.  She stopped fiddling with the coffeemaker when he came in.  He wordlessly wrapped his arms around her.  She let him hug her without interruption for almost an entire minute before she spoke.

"Are you okay?"  Her voice was soft with concern.

"No... I'm sorry about what I said earlier, about feeling corrupted."

"Is that how you really feel?"

"Yes & no?  I'm grateful that you saved my life and I don't rationally have a problem with it, but there's this feeling.  I've had it ever since I was a kid.  It was like I knew there was something wrong with me.”  He loosened his embrace a little so that he could look her in the eyes.  “I remember I was just a kid reading about King Arthur and his knights-  I always wanted to be Lancelot, but I knew that I never could because I wasn't pure enough.  Since finding out about the demon blood, I've been able to almost feel it.  It's like a poison that's pumping through my veins, but it doesn't hurt me- it just feels like something's off."

He paced slightly and rubbed his hands together anxiously.  He'd never told anyone about the feeling before.  It had been a private shame even before finding out about the blood, afterward it was so much worse.  If he'd have told someone earlier, could they have figured it out and how would've things been different?  The weight of everything that had gone wrong crept onto his shoulders at the thought.

"And when you're in Hell you don't feel that wrongness?"  She tried to understand, but Hell had a way of making even demons want to flee.  The idea of feeling by some degree better for being there was unheard of.

"Pretty much- I feel a whole different type of wrongness."  Sam walked into the dining area, sat down on one of the chairs and stared at the hardwood floor.  "I'm scared that I can't handle this."

"It'll be hard, you knew that when you signed up for it."

"I killed Brady- I tortured him first."  Ruby sat down at the table next to Sam and took his hands in hers.  "I’m sure Crowley will want me to make a few examples of captured higher ups from Lilith's side, to help secure power when we make the push for control.  He'll probably want to string up the bodies from the Central wall like Charlemagne.  I don't know if I can do that."

"That's why you'll be gone for so long..."  She could imagine some political theatrics within Central that would likely be fine, though there might be some resistance to the idea of a human leading Hell- possibly even just the switch over from republic rule to a monarchy would be enough to cause some drama.  Then there'd come the announcement to Lilith's troops.  Ideally it would cause division in her ranks, but there was a significant risk that it would just reignite the conflict.  Sam would be down there long enough to poke the sleeping lion and see how it'd react.  The question was, how much could his abilities overcome his status as an outsider & Lilith's holy mission.  So Crowley would put Sam's powers on display, including his most impressive ones.  "You can kill, in Hell?"

"Yeah, it wasn't any harder than on Earth for me...  It actually was easier- natural." His lip trembled slightly.  "I know that I've killed demons before, but this was different... everyone down there was a demon.  They aren't the ones coming in and causing carnage- that's me."

"They're in a war, it's not like they're completely innocent."  She wanted to say something to make it easier on him, but she was having difficulty balancing reassurance & acknowledgement of his very real dilemma.

"I know, it's just... Down there they have faces & names..."  He struggled to talk around the tightness in his throat.  "I found out that my best friend in college was one of Azazel's minions almost the whole time I knew him.  I killed him.  I keep thinking that in spite of the betrayal, he was actually one of the best friends I'd ever had.  He was a person, not some demonic drone.  You're a person."

"Sam, they're individuals fighting down there for whatever personal reasons just like any other war.  If you weren't down there, they'd still be trying to kill each other, & our side would almost certainly be the losing one.  I'm not saying that you're going to single handedly fight Lilith's army, but if you can bring some order & guidance... I don't know, maybe some blood on the hands might be the price for survival."

"They're going to break me- make me into something I don't want to be... I don't want to be a tyrant, but how can the King of Hell be anything else?"

"You're stronger, smarter, & more good than you think.  They don't need you to be cruel, they need you to be effective.  Show them your value now and they may not even try to break you."  She picked up his hand and kissed it.  "I know you wanted to be Lancelot, but you're gonna have to settle for Arthur."

"In Hell."  He smiled sadly at her.

"No job is perfect."

She scooted her chair closer to him and pulled on his shirt to bring his face to hers.  Her lips closed the distance.  It was a sad & longing kiss, which they seemed to have been having a lot recently, but it was also comforting.  Sam regretfully broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers.

"They're pulling me back down in about an hour.  I don't know-"

Ruby grabbed his face with both hands and pulled him into a desperate kiss.  He wrapped an arm around her back, then pulled her onto his lap.  His hand started sliding up underneath her shirt, but she stopped him.  Sam looked at her in confusion until she took his hand and started leading him to their bedroom.

"You're going away for a few months."  She pushed Sam backward onto the bed, then climbed on top of him. "That's worth me having to smoke out for a few minutes while you're away, not a good long term plan, but right now I'm not thinking passed the next hour."

* * *

December 17, 2009

"Are you okay?"  Shola asked Sam.

He was anxiously fiddling with his simple silver ring.  After holding the band tightly for whatever comfort he could squeeze from it, he slipped it back onto his left ring finger.  

"I'm a little nervous."  He confessed.

"That sounds about right."

They were waiting in a minimalistic antechamber off of the main entry hall into the Citadel.  He was grateful for the relative privacy.  For what must’ve been a month by Hell standards he had been running a diplomatic gauntlet with various Archdemons and bureaucrats.  There had been introductions, lessons on protocol & history, debates about policy & strategy, and more.  He was given a short reprieve to get ready for the big unveiling, but as much as he tried to relax he just became painfully aware of the clock counting down.

“I’m not sure I can pull this off.”  Playing at being the King of Hell was one thing, convincing anyone else was another.  “They’re not going to believe it- I don’t believe it.”

“You need to remember that they want it to be true.  Play to their weakness-”  Sam huffed a pained laugh as he shook his head.

“Hope is a weakness now?”

“When it hinders scepticism, absolutely.”  Shola said as she smiled reassuringly.  “Just carry yourself with some confidence and try to remember your little speech-"

"That's probably the part I'm most worried about.  They're making me say that stuff-"

"If it makes you feel any better, roughly 98% of the people hearing it will get it altered through translation or as it becomes passed through the chain of gossip-”

“That’s comforting.”  Sam rolled his eyes at the prospect of having an additional layer of helplessness with regard to the message he was supposed to give to all of Hell.

“It’ll mostly work in your favor.  Like I said, the residents of Central all want you to be the leader we need.  It’ll be the alterations that Lilith’s side will make that stand to be negative, but they are probably already belittling you.”

“I wonder what sorts of thing they say about Crowley... no wonder he drinks constantly.”  Sam muttered even though he assumed that Crowley’s demonic fortitude left him mostly unaffected by the endless flow of luxury scotches.

Sam compulsively adjust his clothes.  Crowley had insisted he wear something other than plaid & denim while working.  To Sam's mild horror the topic became quite an ordeal with every Archdemon and high ranking adviser putting in their two cents.  The compromise ended up being something akin to a suit, but with a tailored jacket that extended to the knees creating an almost tabard appearance.  The longer Sam was in Hell the more he recognized a vague medieval aesthetic preference from the castes that didn’t get topside very frequently.

At least two dozen suits had been created in different color palettes and with different accents, but for the big reveal Crowley had something special in mind.  It was white with dark red embroidery that ascended the jacket, up to a high collar.  The idea was to allude to the rumors that had spread after he was spotted on The Seat in full bloom.  The red embroidery was mostly innocuous pattern work, but up close small red flowers were visible around the collar, cuffs, & bottom hem.  The idea of wearing a white suit or something with flowers while addressing the armies of Hell seemed a little silly, but he wasn't going to argue with whatever passed for theatrics in their culture- it could have been much worse.

After taking a deep breath, Sam stepped out of the antechamber door into the entry hall and was surprised to see Mir standing patiently on the other side.  The Knight was silent and reserved as ever, but the fact that he wasn't beside The Seat for the first time since waking surely meant something.  When Sam continued walking, Mir followed him a few feet behind and to the right.

"We're trying to avoid the appearance that you need a guard."  Groaned Crowley as he crossed the hall to meet Sam.  

Crowley and the other Archdemons had agreed that the best course of action would be to walk from the Citadel through Central to the wall, allowing the masses to get a firsthand look at the would be King.  Sam would be accompanied by the Archdemons & a collection of trusted guards.  It was suggested that surrounding Sam with guards would give an air of insecurity, so to his slight concern the guards were instructed to stand at least thirty feet away from him and act more as crowd control.

"A Knight is different than just some guard."  Pointed out Shola.  "If he sees something in Sam, then it's an asset to us."

"Lucian."  Crowley corrected as he looked Sam over for flaws that needed to be dealt with.  "Outside your present company you both follow the guiding principle of fake it til you make it."

"You aren't going to be joining us in this charade?"  Sam asked, betraying his nerves.

"Nonsense.  I just have a different mode of support.  I can't lie for you, but I'll be there to give pointed suggestion & slide by on technicalities.”  The Archdemon smiled innocently.  “You know, politics.”

* * *

 The journey to the wall between Central & the Pits took an entire day.  Luckily, fatigue & hunger didn't seem to be an issue in Hell, unless it was part of a dedicated torture regiment.  He found it a little disorienting, losing all the normal measures of time- nights, exhaustion, & the need for meals.  Without the indicators of time, tasks took as long as they needed to in order to be completed, and if it had taken a week to walk to the wall then that's just how it'd go.

In the back of the procession were the prisoners that Sam was expected to execute.  There had been lengthy discussions about what was necessary to establish him as a powerful presence.  The initial suggestion was the obvious choice to kill the highest ranking prisoners of war that they had.  But Sam shot it down as merely making martyrs of them.  After a long debate it was agreed that the approximately one thousand prisoners of war would be divided into four categories:

The highest ranking & most inspirational demons would be publicly buried away into the dullest prison possible, to live out eternity in crippling monotony.  In truth there was a tentative plan to quietly execute them once they were out of recent memory.  There was debate over whether they should be killed at all, but the leading theory was that the risks of keeping them alive outweighed the risks of public outrage if their executions came to light.  Sam wasn’t particularly thrilled with this determination, but it seemed to be a non-issue for the moment.

The most opportunistic of the prisoners were held apart from the rest with the intention of eventual recruitment.  Crowley pointed out that for those who only want to be on the winning side, once the tides turn in the Pits, they should be an incredibly predictable resource.  If the alliance's forces could properly retake & entrench in the Pits, Lilith would have almost no leverage to outbid Sam & Crowley for the demon sellswords.

Sam firmly requested that the lowest ranking & common demons be given an opportunity to repent and join them.  After torturing Brady and talking with several other demons, Sam had noticed that he could read demons' internal turmoil fairly easily.  He suggested that even if it would take months or years… even decades, if Lilith's minions wanted to change their loyalty, Sam would hear everyone of them out.  The Arches had initially disapproved, seeing the potential for pardons as a sign of weakness, but in time they reached a compromise.  If Sam found one of Lilith's demons to be insincere, he would publicly execute them, which would reinforce Sam’s dominance.  As much as Sam disliked the idea of more killing, he had to admit that it would likely cut down on false penance pretty quickly.

The last group was the prisoners that would be made into examples.  They were the demons that no one on either side would mourn, yet everyone had heard of.  The most vile & infamous officers that were hated by their underlings & enemies alike.  Lilith's army would gossip about the executions, but it wouldn't cause any heartfelt outrage.  Luckily, in Hell most demons had been tortured by their superiors at one point or another, so it was just a matter of finding the ones that had no remotely redeemable qualities.

After reaching the wall, Sam & his party ascended a staircase to a point where they could overlook both sides.  It was the first time he’d seen Lilith’s army.  Beyond the wall, in the Pits, there was an expanse of probably ten thousand demons.  The terrain was irregular, so Sam couldn’t see as far as he’d have been able to on Earth, but he knew that there were even more demons surrounding Central District on all sides.  Many of Lilith’s soldiers were in a state of casual alertness, waiting for some sort of action to begin.  A few supply stations were visible in the distance, but generally it was obvious that they were at a stalemate.  When the closest ones saw Sam & the Archdemons arrive, they gave their hostile, yet full attention to the new development.

He was shaking slightly, but from so far away he trusted that no one could tell.  With just a few sentences he would be taking a new plunge into the madness that had somehow become his life.  He'd been working in Hell behind the scenes for what was five weeks local time, but that was hidden away within the Citadel and the inner circle.  This was going to start the more public phase of the plan.  All the most popular rumors of Hell would be settled and replaced by new gossip & theories sprouting from the next few minutes.

The more unnerving part was that inevitably word would spread to Earth, about the change in politics, but worse was how it was going to sound.  He was going to have to feign a certain level of  piety in order to utilize the brand of Lucian and strengthen the idea of a divine monarchy.  That meant that he would have to reframe his past.  As for his feelings on Lucifer, he'd have to outright lie.  He tried to quell his anxiety for a moment before he began the performance.

"Many of you know me as Sam Winchester.”  Several demons on the wall acted as translators & cryers for the crowds.  The odd hissing sound of Abyssal spread through both groups of demons as his speech was passed along.  “I was chosen by Lucifer to lead Hell, before I could complete the trials put before me Lilith attempted to usurp control.  She has only succeeded in dividing & weakening Hell.  The Archdemons beside me have endorsed my leadership and agreed to act as my advisors.  With their assistance & with reverence to the will of Lucifer, I am here to accept my destiny.  I have bound myself with oaths of loyalty to Hell.  Know me now as Lucian, the true champion of Hell, who will bring the second season."

Cheering rose up from the Central side of the wall, but it quieted when Sam turned to specifically address Lilith's army in the Pits.  Every single soldier within view was watching him, and small murmurs rose from her army.

"Lilith has led you on a false crusade.  If you sincerely wish to lay down your arms, I will spare your life."  The offer of mercy elicited another, more startled murmur.  "But I can see into your hearts and if you try to deceive me I will kill you.  Like them..."

The ten prisoners were lined up along the edge of the wall so that they were clearly visible from the Pits.  Sam waiting long enough to allow Lilith's troops to identify the officers, then he walked up to the first one.  He gripped the demon by zir neck.  His heart was pounding and he felt a tightness in his own throat, but he swallowed the flood of emotions.  White light shown from zir mouth & eyes.  After screaming in agony & convulsing for a moment, zie went limb and zir shell's color became dull.  Sam tossed the frail body from the wall and it shattered on the Pit floor.  

Sam moved down the line systematically killing each prisoner in the same fashion.  With each execution he felt a little more sick, but he made a point not to let it show on his face or in his posture.  Both audiences whispered with each death, but a few vengeful cheers came up from the Central side when two of the more notorious officers were killed.

After throwing the last shell into the Pits, Sam looked out over Lilith's army for a moment to let the situation sink in a bit more.  Ripples of confusion, doubt, & outrage spread throughout Lilith's troops.  He could see a commotion on the far edge of his view of the Pits.  Something was moving forward through the crowd, drawing the attention of nearby demons and causing exclamations to rise from the mob.

A man became visible as the focus of attention.  His appearance was more human than most.  He was large, muscular, & tanned with short black hair.  He wore undecorated plate armor and had what looked like a claymore at his side.  As he approached, Sam could see that he had a pair of black horns protruding from his forehead that were vaguely camouflaged against his hair.

"That's Joseba, one of the Knights."  Whispered Shola from behind Sam.  "He woke up around the same time as Mir, but went out into the Pits.  We haven't been able to keep track of him since then."

One of the higher ranking demons on the Pits side climbed onto a large boulder, then started yelling something to the crowd and pointing at Joseba.  The crowd started cheering & chanting something in Abyssal.  

Sam didn't need to understand the language to know that Lilith's side was rallying behind the presence of a Knight.  He looked to the reactions of those around him.  Crowley & the other allied Archdemons were doing an admirable job of hiding their concern, but Mir's behavior was the most interesting.

Mir looked to a point on the wall that was completely void of anything interesting for several seconds, then he turned to look at Sam.  The Knight's lipless smile had returned.  He took a step forward to get a better view of Joseba.

Joseba continued walking through the crowd, but redirected his course to join the officer that had started the chanting.  The officer started yelling angrily up at Sam's group, having been given a new sense of enthusiasm by the Knight's presence.  Joseba climbed onto the large boulder with the officer.  

In a single flash of motion, Joseba had drawn his claymore and decapitated the officer.  The chanting stopped immediately.  Sam had to stop himself from letting his jaw drop in surprise.  Several cries broke out and the demons around Joseba started scrambling up the rock to attack him.  The Knight swung the claymore again killing five demons in a single stroke, then the mob moved in to swarm him.  Sam felt the gentlest gust of air as some unseen entity moved by him quickly.  It went straight over the edge of the wall and had come from... the area Mir had been staring a few seconds earlier.

"Should I be worried?"  Sam asked Mir, who slowly shook his head in return.

Joseba was the center of his own battle, but a strange path was being cut through the crowd toward him.  Sam couldn't see exactly what was causing the disruption, but several demons fell dead in its wake.  Joseba was pulled under the surface of the mob for a moment as the unseen entity moved to reach him.  With a flicker, the new player became visible.

Her movements were inhuman as she sliced with blades that seemed to line her forearms & shins.  The fighting style was reminiscent of Muay Thai and using tonfas.  Her form was one of the least human Sam had seen since arriving in Hell.  She looked more like a three dimensional shadow than anything else.

Almost like a liquid, she slipped between demons, dropping them as she moved closer to Joseba.  She began thinning the herd around him.  After shaking off three demons, he joined her in slowly moving toward the wall.

Mir turned from the show to face Sam.  The Knight locked eyes with Sam, then tilted his head toward a nearby gate tower.  Mir began walking to the tower without waiting to see what Sam would do.  Sam hurried to follow the Knight.  

They descended the tower's staircase and approached the large iron gate.  Twenty demons were guarding the gate on the Central side.  The guards looked at Mir & Sam, uncertain of what was happening.  Shola ran up behind Sam, having noticed that he'd slipped away during the excitement.

"What are you doing?"  She asked.

"Not really sure yet."  Sam replied.  The Knight raised his maul into a fighting stance and began walking towards the gate.  "Fuck, he's serious-  Shola, tell them to let him out."

Shola hesitated only for a second before yelling orders at the guards.  The guards looked between each other before looking to Sam.  He didn't care if they didn't understand his words he started shouting at them to raise the gate.  The demons took the hint and began lifting the gate, and moving into defensible positions.  When the gate was raised, they got their first ground level view of the fight.

There was a massive brawl located roughly eighty feet in front of the gate that was centered on Joseba & the female demon.  To Sam's surprise, Mir continued to almost stroll, instead of opting to run, into battle.  A few of Lilith's demons realized the gate was open and tried to rush in.  Mir calmly swung his maul, shattering shells with near indifference.  The Central guards hurried to defend against any incoming attackers.  Just before Mir reached the edge of the mob, he turned back to look at Sam expectantly.  The Knight contemplated something for a moment before turning to join the fight.  Based on the hilt & handle sticking out of Mir's back, he'd been stabbed while eyeing Sam.

Sam could see that Joseba & the female demon were almost halfway through the mob, but they'd been slowed down by some sort of reinforcements.  Mir was helping clear the way for them, but he lacked a certain speed that was helpful when so overwhelmingly outnumbered.  Against his better judgment, Sam ran through the gate.

* * *

 He had never actually been on a battlefield before.  There was a seemingly endless threat before him, but he couldn't just leave the Knights out there.  They may have been more powerful than normal demons, but when outnumbered so overwhelmingly it leveled the contest.  In the fight before him, he could see that abstract knowledge incarnate.  

He knew that he was more powerful than a normal demon, but when stacked up against a horde...  His job was to be a figurehead, not to fight the war.  They hadn't tested his combat abilities in Hell or his vulnerability.  Unlike everyone else there, he was still alive and could potentially be killed by mundane injury.  In Hell, with the exception of by special weapons, Sam or a Knight, it was incredibly difficult to kill demons.  So he didn't venture too far into the fray, but enough that he could assist Mir, who had become engulfed.

With a thrust of his hand, Sam telekinetically threw five demons off of Mir.  He couldn't see where they landed, though it must've been at least fifty feet away.  Sam continued throwing demons out of the way, trying to help clear a path.  But now that he was out on the field, he could see what why the reinforcements were proving such a nuisance.  

Five massive taloned & fanged Torquean demons had moved up from the reserves to assist in subduing the Knights.  Joseba attempted to kill one, but he was visibly injured and was having to make an effort just to continue moving.  The female demon dropped one of the Torquean without much difficulty, but she was hindered by continuing to assist Joseba.  Mir shattered a Torquean , but became bogged down by the lesser demons again quickly.  

One of the Torquean moved to bring down a sickle on Joseba's head, but Sam grabbed her.  He used his powers to lift the powerful demon into the air & crushed her, which drew a lot of unwanted attention to him.  The two remaining Torquean & a group of at least a dozen demons moved to rush Sam.     
Instinctively, Sam held up his hands to them.  Brilliant light shone out before him.  Screams & hissing swelled up from the mob.  He couldn't tell if the hissing was an expression of anger or the sound of burning flesh until he smelled scorched skin & brimstone.  He lowered his hands to see that the group that had been charging him was nothing more than ash.  

The nearby demons stopped mid-frenzy.  Several of Joseba's attackers gave up their assault and hurried backward into the crowd.  The shadowy female demon finished off the remaining few who continued to harass Joseba, while Mir killed the last demon he was fighting.

Sam looked around to realize that he & the Knights were being given a wide berth.  Lilith's troops didn't even attempt to charge the still open gate into Central District.  The immediate army was suppressed with a seething tension.  They had adopted a defensive posture and waited to see what Sam & the Knights would do.

But with Joseba & Mir both injured, the priority was to safely retreat back into Central.  The female demon helped Joseba through the gates while Sam & Mir covered them, but no attacks came.  Once the four of them were through, the iron gate was lowered.  

Sam looked at the scene on the Central side of the gate.  All of Lilith's troops that had rushed the gate had been subdued.  Beyond the guards, who were binding their prisoners, was a crowd of Central demons.  There were over a hundred who'd risked watching the fight from ground level and eyed Sam with curious wonder.  Crowley stood next to Shola on the front edge of the audience with a small smile that helplessly formed on his face.

The female demon lifted Joseba's arm off of her shoulders and let him fall onto the ground.  The injured Knight looked up at her with a near smile of gratitude.  She softly kicked his ribs where a chunk had been taken out of both his armor & him.  He cringed & smiled at her while clutching his damaged chest.

"Tora?"  Crowley asked the shadowy demon, who nodded toward him and responded in Abyssal.  Crowley looked to Sam.  "I've always been curious to meet the 'Knight of shadows'.  She's a hard one to coax out of hiding."

Tora offered Joseba a hand up and Sam was briefly surprised when her slender form was able to aid the larger, armor clad man so easily.  While helping him up, she asked Joseba something in Abyssal.  He smiled, gripped his claymore, then replied to her.

"She asked what he was doing among Lilith's army."  Shola translated for Sam.  "He said that he was just looking for his sword."


	2. 2010

1/05/2010

Dean had mixed feelings about moving to the camp.  It was true that they seemed to be fairly well hidden, but at what cost.  Independent of everything Sam had given up for the protection, there were other downsides.  Technically, they were in Canada, though it was hard to tell because they barely had any interaction with the locals.  They were largely isolated, roughly an hour's drive to the closest town and about three hours to reach a decent sized city.

Dean tried to make the most of it, but he found himself suffering from a literal case of cabin fever combined with a strange fatigue from domestic life.  He may have claimed a small cabin for himself, he barely seemed to get any privacy.  At least once or twice a day he was enlisted to help supervise the kids.  He didn’t mind the children as much as he’d expected, but being on call for babysitting quickly became an excuse to sink into a rut.  

The change wasn't nearly as difficult for Bobby, but then again the old hunter had been something of a shut-in to begin with.  After the first week, Bobby had embraced the role of substitute grandpa to the eight children.  He would spend half of his days working what remained of the hunter network online and half teaching the children who were old enough to understand what he was saying.  All in all, Dean was happy that at least one of them had a relatively easy time adjusting to the new arrangements.

Not surprisingly, it was difficult getting used to Sam popping in & out.  The first few days Sam looked exhausted or occasionally distraught.  He always needed to be around other people, and almost always with Kaylee.  Dean found the behavior a little obsessive until he reminded himself that Sam was always returning from a month away from home.  He tried his best to be there for Sam, but there was an uncomfortable disconnect in their experiences of Hell.  Dean had been on the opposite side of the experience from what Sam was enduring.  They settled for Sam confiding feelings & abstract concepts to Dean, while reserving more divisive & detailed confessions for Ruby.  

After a week or so, Sam started being a bit less clingy and explained that he was starting to figure out how to partition the divided time in his mind.  He wasn’t really missing much of his family life, he was just having subjectively long asides.  Dean didn't quite understand it, but as long as Sam was feeling better he wasn't about to complain.

After the chaos died down and everyone had fallen into a routine, Dean found himself more bored than he'd ever been in his life.  It'd been over a month without a hunt, which was the longest period of inactivity he'd had since he was a teenager.  Their only priority since the run in with Uriel & Tambriel had been survival & getting stabilized.  But now that that was over with, things had turned hopelessly mundane.

* * *

 There was a knock on the front door to Dean's cabin.  He looked up from The Killing Joke and eyed the door warily.  It was about ten feet away from the couch that he was laying on, which meant it was about nine feet too far to be bothered with.  Anyway, it's not like he locked the door- when your main threat was angels, who really bothered a deadbolt.

"Yeah."  He shouted, but when no one came in he tossed the trade paperback onto his coffee table.  "Come on in, Cas."

The angel didn't bother opening the door, instead he just appeared in the tiny combination living room & kitchenette.  Dean sighed, but didn't comment on Cas' continual inability to figure out proper etiquette for entering property or personal space.

"I need your help."

Dean stretched, but didn't really do anything that would give the false impression of him actually getting off the couch.  He scratched the stubble that he'd accidentally neglected long enough that it was probably objectively a beard.  It had become commonplace for Cas to ask for Dean's ‘insight’ at least a dozen times a day, but ‘help’ was a rarer request that usually implied some physical labor.  At least the angel had stopped using the overly formal ‘I require your assistance.’

"What do you need help with?"

"I want to retrieve your car."

"What?"  Dean sat up at mention of the Impala.

"Your car-"

"I meant why and how- and when.  Just tell me what you were thinking of doing."

"It has been moved from Bobby's driveway to an impound lot within Sioux Falls.  When I located it ten minutes ago, there were no angels within several miles.  I doubt that it is being watched.  I wanted to bring it here, but it is too large for me to teleport and I do not have experience operating an automobile."

"You want to spring Baby?"  Dean's eyes glinted and he licked his lips excitedly.

"... Yes."  Cas said after taking a moment to interpret Dean's question.  "Even though there may not be angels watching the car, we will need to be vigilant."

"Yeah."  Dean hopped up from the couch and waved his hand in acknowledgement of whatever Cas had said.  A quick peek in a mirror while grabbing his coat confirmed that his not quite beard wasn't sufficiently disgusting to delay him with grooming.  Dean smiled at Cas.  "What're we waiting for.  Let's go."

* * *

 They stood across the unlit street from the police impound lot.  Sheriff Mills had ensured that Baby wasn't sold or scrapped, but she was too short on cash to bail the car herself.  The Impala had become an object of speculation among the local police force when it was discovered that the trunk & glovebox couldn't be ‘found ajar’.  It'd be obvious if a someone tried to take a metal saw to it, but everyone decided to take at least one shot at picking the lock on Excalibur.  The result was a little too much attention on the Impala, but at least the attention seemed strictly human.

"I don't get it, why aren't there angels watching her?"  Dean asked while looking down the street for any potential witnesses.

"They would not see the relevance of the object.  There is nothing of objective value in car."

"All the power & minds of Heaven and they don't know to watch my most prized possession?"

"Sentimentality is viewed as an undesirable emotion.  They do not understand the importance that objects can hold for humans.  Attachment to things & people- most angels will try to avoid considering those emotions and in the process underestimate them."

"They think I'm too smart to risk coming back for her?"  Cas looked uncertainly at Dean, who laughed.  "Time to show them."

Cas teleported to the far side of the impound lot, then began pulling on car door handles until one set off an alarm.  Dean watched as the cop in the guardhouse near the padlocked gate went to investigate.   It wasn't exactly breaking into the Louvre, but Dean felt a little thrill as he approached the gate, large pair of bolt cutters in hand.

He was in & out with Baby in about thirty seconds.  Half an hour later, Dean pulled into the gas station outside of Sioux Falls where they had agreed to regroup.  Cas climbed into shotgun and they got back on the freeway heading southeast.  They had agreed to take a long route back to the camp, to lose any would be pursuers.  After cycling through the radio stations for a few minutes, Dean opted to attempt some small talk.

"I don't suppose you could hop back over to Bobby's house and grab me some Zepp?"  Dean quickly clarified. "Music- Zepp is short for Led Zeppelin, which is a band."

"I suspect that Bobby's house will continue to be watched for a long time."  Cas said in an almost apologetic tone.

"I thought you said angels don't care about possessions?  Why would they be watching Bobby's and not my Baby?"

"Bobby's house contains several objects that are potentially of strategic importance.  Like I said, there is nothing of value in this car."

"How did you know?”  Dean’s brow furrowed slightly at the realization.  “You must've known that before you risked scoping it out."

"I asked Ruby & Sam what they had left inside the car."

Dean glanced at the angel for a moment.  Cas had researched the situation before deciding to get the Impala- it hadn't been the impulsive act that Dean had assumed... Granted, after getting some of the adrenaline out of his system, Dean realized just how out of character impulsive tendencies were for Cas.  Thinking about it, Dean had never actually gotten the answer to his question of why.  It was obvious why he would want to rescue Baby, but Cas hadn't even ridden in the Impala until then.

"Why did you want to do this?"

"I heard Sam & Bobby talking about your discouraged state.  Sam mentioned that you were probably missing your car and the freedom that it provided you."

"You wanted to cheer me up?"

"Did I succeed?"

"Yeah, Cas.  Thank you."

Dean turned the volume back up on the radio and began explaining different aspects of the songs.  Cas listened closely, both to the music and to Dean's commentary.  After a few hours, they stopped at a diner for a quick breakfast.  Dean managed to convince Cas to try eating something, under the pretense of pretending to be human while in public.  As Cas warily reviewed the menu, Dean stepped outside to call & check in with Bobby.  When he came back in, Dean had content smile on his face.

"Hey Cas, how do you feel about taking a slight detour on the way back to hit a vampire nest for Bobby?"

* * *

5/10/2010

“Come on cutie, it’s too nice a night to stay inside.”  Ruby said as she picked up Kaylee from her crib.

Sam was pulling a shift down in Hell and Tom was watching a movie over at Dean’s cabin, so it was just the two of them for a few hours.  Ruby carried her six month old daughter out into the warm summer air.  She pulled up a rocking chair on her cabin’s porch and rested Kaylee on her chest.  Kaylee reached up and gently grabbed at Ruby’s face.  
  
“Watch it kid or I’ll nibble your fingers.”  She softly started gumming Kaylee’s fingers while making ‘nomming’ noises.    
  
Kaylee giggled, then mumbled something vaguely resembling words.  Ruby smiled down at her.

“Pretty soon you’re gonna be saying stuff that your dad & I can understand.  That’s gotta be exciting for you.”  
  
There was a streak of light in the sky that caught Kaylee’s attention.  She tried to lift herself up, but couldn’t quite turn herself around.  Ruby helped reposition her so that she was reclined on Ruby’s chest and they were both staring up at the sky.  
  
“That was a shooting star- it’s actually just some crap burning up in our atmosphere, but people like to call it a star because it’s bright.  People get tricked pretty easily- mostly humans, but people in general.”  Ruby pointed up at the moon and Kaylee reached out for her hand.  "That big bright thing is the moon.  You probably don’t have good enough eyes, but there’s a rabbit shape on the moon- fuck, you probably don’t know what a rabbit is…  Not that it really matters, you have no frame of reference for anything I’m saying right now anyway…“  
  
A silence stretched between them because Ruby didn’t know how to carry an extended conversation by herself.  She slowly rocked the chair and felt a small pang of guilt.

“Your dad would know what to say.”

Sam was always talking to Kaylee, reading to her, making her laugh.  Some aspect of it came naturally to him in a way that it didn’t for her.  Sam had loved Kaylee even before she was born.  He didn’t hesitate to do whatever he thought might make their daughter smile.  It secretly awed her to see how good he was with children considering his own upbringing.  He was striving to make up for his own father’s failures- Sam was a million times better than John.  Sam was better than her.

She cared about Kaylee, she was protective of her, but there was something missing from their relationship.  She wasn’t sure how to be vulnerable to Kaylee.  Sam was probably the only person that she’d ever bared her soul -so to speak- to.  She’d shared her past with Sam and might very well continue to share her future with him too, but that future included this tiny person that she barely knew.  Sam wasn’t scared by that… but maybe she was.  
  
She didn’t remember her parents or most of her childhood.  It was too short, with too much pain.  When she went to Hell, the demons who worked her over tried to strip away all of her happiness, compassion, & love.  They wanted to tear away all the good to leave the broken & desecrated soul- just another demon bound by the covenant of the Maji.  But while trimming away the undesirable parts of her humanity, they’d left the reason why she’d sold her soul.  The Torqean demons who worked her over only saw the anger & need for vengeance and left that piece untouched.  They didn’t look past the pain to see her passion to save her friends & family, which fueled her wrath.  That passion survived, some small capacity to love.  
  
When she’d formed her coven, she’d had the chance to get her claws into the witches’ souls.  It would’ve earned her some favor in Hell, but she hesitated.  She had become a demon trying to save the people closest to her, her improvised family, and she wanted more than anything to protect them.  Her family was her anchor to humanity even when she was inhuman.  
  
But she’d lost so much of her family in the natural course of human mortality and then in the massacre six months earlier.  There had been death for centuries and far too much recently.  The surviving members were all so young and hadn’t learned all the stories of their parents, of their people.  Countless histories had been destroyed with the deaths of the older coven members- and Ruby was old, nearly all of her life was in those histories.  There was no way to recover all that had been lost.  There was no mending those wounds.  
  
Now she was the sole keeper of the past.  Only she knew the story of the journey from Haiti to America or even just the story of how Tom’s parents met.  She’d been alive for almost three centuries Earth time, longer counting her time in Hell.  There was so much that she’d experienced & learned and all of that value was as fragile as her survival.  She looked up at stars and held Kaylee’s delicate form with a little more reverence.  
  
“When I was your age, my mom or dad must’ve shown me these same stars & moon.  I was half a world away, before humans harnessed electricity… and I saw the same stars we’re looking at now.  The stars are always up there, even when you can’t see them.  No matter how old you get or who’s around to look at them with you- they’re something special.”  
  
Kaylee gripped Ruby’s thumb and made an almost cooing noise.  Ruby smiled down at the strange little bundle of life she’d helped create.  Of course Sam would love Kaylee, he loved easily and by all reasonable measures Kaylee was loveable.  Ruby knew it, but… so much of her existence had been losing people she cared about- her parents, her allies, her friends, her coven…  Her past was a field of tombstones and how was she supposed to trust the tiny sliver of her heart to such a frail little thing that couldn’t even communicate?  
  
Kaylee reached up at the sky, trying to grab at a second shooting star, then she started mumbling some more gibberish.  Someday, probably soon, Kaylee would start to actually talk.  If she was anything like Sam, she’d be an endless source of questions.  And if she was anything like Ruby, she’d finish mixing the potion before finishing reading the recipe.  Little Kaylee, who was already grabbing at shooting stars, would undoubtedly want to turn over every rock to see the whole world.  
  
So much of Kaylee’s life was in the future and so much of Ruby’s life was in the past.  The only way Kaylee would grow was through the help given to her and the only way Ruby would grow was through giving that help.  The past wasn’t Ruby’s secret to protect or her burden to bear alone.  That vulnerability of caring wasn’t to be shied away from because that bond of family & friends had given her strength through the sea, whip, flame, Earth, Hell, and back again.  If she could do just one thing for her daughter, she wanted to give her that strength.  She wanted to share three centuries of the past and however much of the future they could.  
  
“You might not know this because I haven’t practiced with Tommy in a few months, but we don’t have to speak English in the house.  Tommy & I speak something called [dagbani](http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Niger-Congo/Gur/Dagbani%20dictionary%20CD.pdf)\- your dad doesn’t speak it, but maybe he can learn with you.  It was the first language I ever learned to speak.  I can teach you all twelve if you want, but right now we’re gonna start with something easy.”  Ruby pointed at the sky.  “The stars are called saŋmarsi, and the moon is ŋmarga… okay, maybe something with fewer syllables.  Your dad is your ba & I’m your mom, which is your ma.”  
  
Ruby sighed when Kaylee started wriggled in her arms.  She worried that her first sincere attempt to share something of deep personal value with her daughter would end with Kaylee fussing.  But instead Kaylee leaned her head back so that she could see Ruby.  
  
“Ma.”  Kaylee said while reaching for Ruby’s face.  
  
Ruby was speechless.  As far as she knew, that was the first time Kaylee had spoken anything more than strings of mumbling.  Everyone had expected her first word to be something along the lines of daddy.  Sam spent all his free time playing with her, that just made sense.  But there the two of them were, sharing that milestone together.  
  
Another shooting star flew across the sky, causing Kaylee to giggle and grab at the streak of light.  
  
“Don’t worry, you’ll catch it someday.”  Ruby kissed the top of Kaylee’s head.  “You’re something special.”  
  
Kaylee rolled onto her side, then clung to Ruby’s shirt.  She blinked slowly while saying ‘ma’ several times before falling asleep in Ruby’s arms.  Despite the periodic streak of light in the night sky, Ruby didn’t bother looking up.  She only had eyes for her daughter.  
  
"You’re my starlight.”

* * *

 

8/17/2010

Cas plunged his blade into the last angel's chest, then pulled it back out as the body flickered and fell to the ground.  He looked around the room to see Dean wiping the blood off his adopted angel blade onto his jacket's sleeve.  Cas wordlessly walked over to inspect Dean for injuries and healed the few cuts he found.

"Your tie's shredded."  Dean managed between winded breaths.  Cas looked down to see that his dark blue tie had been cut diagonally over almost the full length of its front.  He held up the pieces and scowled subtly.  "Are you going to fix it?"

"I'm not injured."  Cas slowly loosened the tie and took it off.  He dropped it in a move that made them both strangely uncomfortable.  "It's unnecessary... Repairing it would be a waste of my energy."

Despite the moderate ease with which Cas had discarded the tie, over the next two days Dean began to suspect that Cas was actually saddened by the loss.  Cas would never consciously acknowledge it, but he seemed to have gained some of the sentimentality that supposedly came hard for angels.  But Dean saw him, several times a day reflexively reach to adjust his tie, remember that it was no longer there, then pause thoughtfully.  At first it was interesting to watch, but quickly the spectacle of an angel possibly feeling remorse over clothing accessories was replaced by the desire to cheer up a friend.

"Happy birthday."  Dean said as he walked into the motel room and tossed a small box to Cas.

"I don't have a birthday."  Cas looked at Dean a little confused, but began unwrapped the box.

"You do now.  August 20th, mark your calendar."  Dean sat down on one of the queen beds and watched Cas open his gift.  Cas removed the box lid to find three new ties in varying shades of blue.

"Thank you, Dean."  Cas held them up to examine their different textures.  "You didn't need to buy three.  I can only wear one at a time."

"Yeah, but you can switch between them depending on your mood."  Cas was still learning about aesthetic preferences and simple pleasures, so Dean decided to walk him through the decision making process.   "Which one do you like the most?"

"They're all very nice.  Which one do you prefer?"

"That's not really what I was getting at, Cas.  I'm try to help you make that decision."  Cas nodded in understanding of Dean's intent, then gave the issue a little more thought.

"Tell me which one you'd pick and why you'd select it."

Dean sighed a little to himself, but walked over to the table.  He thumbed through the options then picked up the lightest blue tie, and held it out to Cas.

"This one."  Dean spoke with a determination that made Cas nod in recognition.

"And why?"

"Because it matches your eyes."  Dean felt a bit self-conscious and added.  "It's a general rule of clothing: when in doubt wear something that matches your eyes."

Cas looked at the tie that dangled from Dean's hand, then frowned slightly.

"I don't know how to knot a tie."

Dean chuckled because of course, the original tie came pre-tied with the body and the angel seemed to never remove his clothes.

"I'll help you with these, but you're gonna have to learn this skill at some point... I mean, you might not 'have to' but it's helpful for faking a Fed."

Dean pulled up a chair in front of Cas.  He lifted the angel's collar, wrapped the tie around his neck, and began tying the knot.  A relaxed smile formed on Dean's face.  It had been a few weeks since they had a nice lull in their hunting and it felt good to do something so simple.  The first attempt resulted in a tie that was too short, so Dean remeasured it against Cas' torso.

"You should wear green more often, or do you not doubt what to wear?"  Cas asked in what Dean assumed was a valiant attempt at small talk.  Dean grinned while looping one end around the other.

"I know I look like I got dressed in the dark most days, but when I want to look good I can."

He gripped the forming knot, and pulled it into a tight windsor.  Dean took a little pride in his work by adjusting it to place a dimple just below the knot.

"I don't understand, you always look good."

Dean flustered a bit while patting the tie flat against Cas' chest, then scooted his chair back a few feet.  He could feel his ears turn pink and his smile flickered nervously.  Dean reminded himself that Cas was still learning how to compliment people, so the subtleties of that statement were almost certainly lost on the angel.

"Thanks, Cas.  I'm gonna get ready for bed.  Think you can handle the other two?"

"I should be fine."

Dean patted Cas on the shoulder and went into the motel bathroom.  Closing the door behind him, he brace himself against the sink basin, and sighed.  Cas was a good guy, but he had a way of sending some very strange signals.

* * *

 8/14/2010

A week earlier they had stopped at a diner for lunch.  Dean ordered his usual bacon cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate malt.  Cas socially ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and water.  Dean had the first sip of his malt and sank back in the booth.  After proclaiming that he'd just had the greatest chocolate malt in existence, Cas reached across the table, picked up the glass, and tried a sip using Dean's straw.  

Dean was a little too shocked to say anything at first, but he wasn't about to abandon the remainder of the malt just because Cas had committed a faux pas.  When they got back into the Impala, he decided to say something.

"Cas, I'm telling you this because you're trying to fit in better, so don't take this the wrong way- you shouldn't have just tried my shake."  He tried to keep his tone of voice as non-critical as possible, though he wasn’t entirely sure if Cas even could perceive that sort of distinction.

"Was it something specific to the food type or a rule in general?  I've seen several instances of humans eating each other's food."

"It's like a combination of the food and the symbolism of eating another person's food..."  The body language had been obvious to him, but when pressed to articulate it he was having trouble quantifying it.  "It's like, you only eat off each other's plates if you're family or best friends-"

"You're my best friend."  Cas interjected in a tone that Dean could tell was almost concern.  Dean mentally kicked himself for carelessly choosing words that Cas could interpret as meaning that they weren’t friends.  The angel’s literalness sometimes led to a gullible insecurity that Dean needed to protect him from.

"That’s true, but even best friends ask for permission before just grabbing each other’s food."  Dean explained.

"But people don't always ask permission."  Cas had seen it at least ten times in six states over the last eight months of hunting with Dean.

"Usually, grabbing food without asking first is something people in relationships do-"  Dean realized that Cas wouldn't understand what he meant by 'relationships'.  "like romantic relationships."

Cas thought quietly in shotgun for what seemed like a whole minute.  Dean debated asking if Cas was alright, but he eventually nodded in understanding.

"I misrepresented the boundaries of our relationship, and you were embarrassed."  Cas said.  Dean wanted to correct Cas by saying that he'd misrepresented their 'friendship' or 'partnership', but that would just prolong the already awkward conversation.  For a second Dean thought that Cas seemed dejected, but the feeling was fleeting.

* * *

 11/02/2010

Cas heard Dean's mumbled prayer from several blocks away and teleported to him immediately.  Dean was slumped over in an alley, but to Cas' relief he was not injured.  He was drunk, more than Cas had ever seen from him before.  The small pool of vomit below Dean confirmed that an evening of fun had gone too far.

Carefully, Cas helped Dean upright.  Draping one of Dean's arms around his neck, Cas tried to help him walk, but Dean's feet missed their marks badly.  After realizing just how intoxicated Dean had managed to get, Cas instead opted to simply carry him.  Cas scooped Dean up and was met with only token resistance.

Once Cas had carried Dean back to the motel room, he laid his charge down on the bed.  Cas removed Dean's boots & jacket, then made for the belt.  He knew that belts were located ominously close to genitalia, so he proceeded with caution.  Dean briefly attempted to either aid or stop Cas, but the intent was unclear.

As Cas turned to go, Dean hooked Cas' right thigh with his arms.  Cas looked back down at Dean.  His eyes were barely open and he didn't seem fully capable of lifting his head enough to look Cas in the face.

"Don't go."  Dean almost whispered.  His freehand reached up to grab at Cas' trenchcoat, but ended up just awkwardly dragging down Cas' side.  Cas reclined on the bed, with his head propped up against the headboard.  Dean buried his face into the tan trench coat and patted Cas' chest a few times.

"Don't leave... I don't want to be alone."

Cas placed a hand on Dean's back in a weak attempt at providing comfort.  After some contemplation, Cas realized that it was November 2nd, the anniversary of Dean's mom's death.  They had known each other for less than a year, but in the months they'd spent on the road Cas felt he had gained a significant understand of his companion.  As much as Dean seemed committed to the life of a hunter, it was not his choice.  It was ingrained in him from a young age as a result of his mother's death.  Cas supposed there was a lot for Dean to mourn every anniversary.

* * *

 The next morning, Dean woke up with almost no hangover, but that wasn't what he noticed first.  He had somehow managed to end up half-snuggling with- or at least against Cas.  Dean's head was pillowed on Cas' abdomen & lower chest.  His right arm wrapped around the angel's torso and his right leg crossed over & intertwined with Cas'.  Cas' arm softly held Dean's back, acting as support.

Dean looked up at Cas, who was just sitting there quietly waiting for Dean to wake up.  Their eyes met, about a foot apart, and Dean suddenly was the one who hadn't understood personal space.  He blushed below his freckled cheeks when Cas smiled at him, then hastily untangled their limbs.  Dean scooted backwards off the bed, making some vague statement he couldn't be bothered to think through, about needing the bathroom before slipping away.

Once in the bathroom, Dean started to process the situation.  He'd gone out drinking the night before because he was sad and/or lonely.  His plan to find a woman to hook up with failed, not for lack of interested woman, two had given him the nod.  But when it came time to jump, he just wasn't feeling it.  In confusion & frustration, Dean drank more than he should've.

Cas found him and brought him back to the motel.  He asked Cas to stay because he needed someone, not in a fleeting physical way like he would've had with one of the women.  The thing he'd needed was a source of emotional support.

That realization hit Dean a little harder than he would've thought possible, but there were two other discoveries that were equally troubling.  He hadn't woken up in a cold sweat or crying.  It was probably only the third time in almost two years that he hadn't dreamt of Hell.  Maybe it was his intensely drunken state or maybe he just felt safer not sleeping alone.

The other realization was that he was partially hard.  He normally didn't mind morning wood, except when it was potentially sending mixed signals to his friends.  Dean touched his jeans to try to figure out if the bulge had been visible to Cas.  He had intended to just readjust his pants and wait for it to go away, but when he touched his dick to move it he reconsidered.  It'd been weeks- probably a month since he'd masterbated and Cas knew that the bathroom was off limits while the door was shut.

Dean started a warm shower and climbed in.  He started thinking about the blond he'd met at the bar, Mindy, he was pretty certain.  She'd been wearing a tight pink dress that barely held in her breasts.  Visualizing her was okay, she was attractive, but it wasn't really doing it for him.  He was older- more mature, and apparently the idea of casual sex had lost some of its appeal.  He wanted more than just some brief physical connection, he wanted a real relationship.  Last night, his instincts had turned him away from the one night stand and Cas had taken care of him.  Cas had brought him back to the motel, cleaned him up, and stayed with him through the night.  Cas had patiently laid there while he had grabbed at him and embraced him.  Cas had-

Dean's eyes rolled back and his thoughts went foggy with bliss for a few seconds.  He felt a moment of complete relaxation, then the panic began to creep into his mind.  He'd just jerked off to Cas without even really working at it.  Since Hell, masterbating had become an exercise in healthy living that he really had to put effort into, not the fun release it used to be.  Many of life's little pleasures had lost their thrill since Hell, and he'd assumed that's how it'd always be going forward, but he was wrong...

But Cas was a guy- sort of.  He'd known attractive guys before, even enjoyed looking at them occasionally, though definitely not as much as he enjoyed looking at women.  Yet he'd never jerked off to one before.  He felt a knot form in his stomach.  It wasn't just the fact that he'd touched himself while thinking about a guy, it was why it came so easily.  If he was honest with himself, at that point Cas was probably the best thing in his life.

Dean rested his forehead against the shower wall.  He tried to think about something else, their current job, whether they could fit in another hunt before heading back to camp for Kaylee's first birthday.  But he couldn't focus on the distractions.  There was one crack too many and the levee was starting to crumble.  His shoulders slumped as he started shaking in spite of the warm shower.  Tears began running down his face.

He was confused & ashamed.  Somehow he'd gone from being one of the toughest hunters around to crying in the shower over a guy.  He thought about a man and that was wrong- for him.  As far as he was concerned, if other people were gay that was their business, but he couldn't be having those feelings.  He wasn't supposed to be like that.  He was supposed to hunt, love cars, love hard alcohol, rock & roll, a good fight, bad beer, & easy women.  He was a man's man- Dean hit his head lightly against the tile wall.

Taking a mental step back, it wasn't that he was super attracted to Cas physically, it was more the relationship that they shared that Dean appreciated.  He'd had friends before, not many, but when your life is as intense as a hunter, strong bonds could form quickly.  But none of his friends had ever been like Cas.  All of his friends were good for a few fun days or a week tops before he needed some space.  Yet Dean had been more or less on the road with Cas for ten months, and he hadn't gotten tired of him.  

The angel was a little strange at times, but he had a sincerity that Dean cherished and it seemed like he always had some new facet to reveal.  Initially, Cas' skill at making small talk had been horrible, but eventually Dean realized that he was perfectly willing & able to engage in lengthy substantive conversations just fine.  Maybe the idea of talking about anything & everything with someone should've scared him, but it was strangely freeing & thrilling.  For the last few weeks he'd even thought about telling Cas what he remembered from Hell.  He'd been scared to be that vulnerable with Sam, Bobby- even Ruby, who might be able to relate, but Cas was different.  Cas was different than everyone.   Dean clenched his eyes & cursed.

* * *

 After getting out of the shower, Dean popped his head out from behind the bathroom door, and asked Cas to run a few errands.  He made some excuse about wanting to take a slower morning after the long night.  Cas didn't question it, and left to fill up the Impala, grab Dean some breakfast, get directions to their next stop, and more.

As soon as Cas was gone, Dean walked out of the bathroom dressed from the waist down.  Sitting on the edge of his bed, he grabbed his cell and called Sam.

After a few rings Sam picked up.  His voice was groggy, but attentive.

"Dean, everything okay?"

"Yeah, Cas & I are fine.  Do you have a minute to talk?"

"Um... Sure."  Dean could hear a rustling noise and Ruby's voice in the background.

"If this is a bad time-"  Dean began to take the opportunity to retreat from the conversation.  He rolled his eyes in frustration at his own cowardice.

"No, it's fine.  I was going to get up in a few minutes anyway."  Dean felt like an ass for calling at what was 6:20am where Sam was, but his time away from Cas was limited.  "What's up?"

"Well, you know how Cas asks a ton of questions?  He asked me what it's like to be in love."  Sam's end was silent.  "I don't really know what to say.  I had that thing with Cassie a few years back, but that was only a few weeks- how am I supposed to know if that was love."

"Wow.  Uh, this is kinda heavy talk for before I've had any coffee."

"Sorry man, this was dumb.  I sh-"

"No, no.  I don't mind.  Just give me a second."  Dean could hear Sam shut a door, then walk around.  Sammy was probably trying to find some privacy too.  "I'm probably going to give you a bad answer.  I haven't really thought about this stuff much."

"What's there to think about?  It's feelings, just describe."  Dean hastily added.  "You're in love with Ruby, right?  Or am I completely embarrassing us both?"

"I think it's safe to say we're both embarrassed, but yeah I think I'm in love with Ruby."

"You think?"  Sam's uncertainty was unnerving, both because he wasn't sure how good Sam's intel would be and also because it might mean that you could be in love & not even know it.

"What do you want from me?  It's not like this stuff comes with a manual."  Sam sighed.  "Ruby & I haven't actually said the words, but I mean things are pretty great and I'm happy- so whatever."

"But when did you know that there was something more to your relationship?"

"Well, I realized I had a thing for her after a few months, but I didn't want to do anything about it."

"Scared it might mess up your friendship?"  Dean asked, then mentally kicked himself for being too obvious.

"Yeah."  Sam yawned.  "And I was scared she might break all my limbs on the way out. Anyway, a month or two later things just got physical one night.  Then she suggested we do friends with benefits."

"Seriously?  You had commitmentless sex with a babe thrown at you?"

"Yeah, well it turned out to be more commitment than expected."

"Kaylee?"

"Actually no, I started to fall for her before we found out she was pregnant."  Dean peeked out the blinds to confirm that the Impala was still gone.  "It's like that metaphor about turning the heat up on the pot of water with the frog.  It just sort of sneaks up on you- the littlest things that she did made me feel better.  It felt natural and infinite- like I could spend all my time with her no matter what we were doing because she's... It's like I felt like I had a home and it was wherever she was... I didn't really get that until recently."

Dean nodded even though no one could see him.  Sam hadn't ever really experienced the security & comfort of having a real home.  From six months old until he went to college, he'd only ever know motel rooms and occasionally sleepovers at hunters' houses.  Dean imagined that dorm life had provided some stability, but how much could you really feel connected to a place that's meant to be transitional.

"I'm glad you found that."

"Thanks."  Sam said.  Dean could hear some action in the background, then Sam sighed.  "I love them, but I wish I could have one fucking day where I sleep in until ten."

"Sorry about calling so early."

"Like I said, it's fine.  I hope that helps with Cas."

"Yeah, I think I get it."  Dean rubbed the stubble on his cheek.  "As thanks, I'll watch Tom & Kaylee when I get back.  You can finally sleep in."

"I don't care if that town is overrun with vampires or zombies or werewolves- you're going to drop everything and drive non-stop until you get here."

"We'll see you in a few weeks."

"Coward."

* * *

12/13/2010

“Can the munchkin even eat cake?”  Dean looked at the small slice of yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  He couldn’t remember what sorts of food Sam ate when he was one year old, so he deferred to Sam’s internet-based wisdom.

“As long as there aren’t any big chunks like nuts or chocolate pieces she should be fine.”  Said Sam as he put the plate of birthday cake onto Kaylee’s high chair.  She didn’t seem to know what to do with it, eventually settling for grabbing at the cake portion and making it into a pile of crumbs.

“Cas, how’s the hunting going?”  Sam asked while dividing his attention between his own slice of cake and making sure Kaylee didn’t throw anything.

“It’s an interesting way of addressing the problem of threats to humanity.  In many ways it’s impractical, but it’s hard to picture what else could be done.”  Cas ate around the chocolate frosting on his slice of cake.  

“We don’t really get to win the fight, but somebody needs to keep up the effort.”  Added Bobby.

“Your numbers have declined considerably since the late 19th century.”  Cas observed.  “When I first noticed the trend I thought it was a reaction to the supernaturalism movement or maybe part of the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society.  Now that I’ve experienced it firsthand… it’s more complex than environmental factors.”

“You forgot about the demon issue.  We weren’t really topside that much for the last century or two.”  Ruby pointed out.  “It used to be a pain in the ass to get a pass up.  Somebody’s bright idea to lay low.”

“Well, I think it might’ve worked.  How many civilians nowadays actually believe in demons?”  Commented Bobby.

“Don’t worry, I believe in you.”  Sam said as he patted Ruby’s thigh.

“Ah, shucks.”  Ruby said.  “Eat your damn cake.”

“The decline might’ve been related to a reduction in the number of threats.”  Cas conceded.

“I’ll bet good money there was a drop off in monsters in The South during the 18th & 19th century.  Vampire blood was one of the biggest ticket items in the craft black markets back in the day.”  Ruby smiled at some fond memory.  “And don’t even get me started on the shit we pulled during the war.”

“The war?”  Asked Dean.

“The War Of The Rebellion.”

“You were messing with the Civil War?”

“Are you kidding?  Of course, I was.  You can’t tell me that you would pass up a chance to get in on that.”  She looked surprised that someone would suggest missing a chance to torment Confederates.  “I had to trade an arm & a leg to get a pass topside, but it was completely worth it-“

Ruby was so enthusiastically telling her story that some cake fell from her plate onto her lap.  She cursed, then went into the kitchen to clean up the mess.  While she was distracted, Sam stole about half the remainder of her slice.  The theft was spotted by Cas & Dean, who exchanged a wordless glance.

Suddenly, Kaylee sneezed so hard that her whole upper body jerked forward.  When she opened her eyes they were solid black.  She looked around in confusion that quickly turned frantic, then started crying.

"Oh shit.”  Sam picked her up and started gently rocking her.  "It’s okay, don’t worry.  You’re okay.“

"What’s wrong?”  Ruby called from the kitchen.

“Her eyes are black.”  Sam answered, then looked to Dean & Cas.  "She’s never done the eye thing before.“

Ruby rushed over and took Kaylee from Sam.  She held Kaylee slightly away from her body so she could face her crying daughter, then blinked her eyes black.

"See, you’re fine.  I’m doing it too.  You can go back to normal.”  Ruby blinked her eyes back to their human default, then returned them to black in solidarity.

“Does it hurt or feel weird?”  Sam asked anxiously.  He hovered next to Ruby’s shoulder helplessly.

“No, she’s probably just spooked by all the new stuff that she’s seeing- colors, wards, etc.  I think she’ll calm down once she realizes nothing’s actually wrong.”

After a few minutes the tears stopped and eventually her small frown faded into indifference.  She looked around the room as everyone watched her.  The silence stretched while the adults waited for her eyes to change.

“How do we get her eyes back to normal?”  Dean finally asked.

“I don’t know.  I mean even if she understood everything we were saying, how do you explain that kinda thing.”  Ruby shrugged.

“Maybe it’ll just go back on its own?”  Sam suggested with a nervous shrug.  "Like she could sleep it off?”

Kaylee stared in Cas’ general direction.  She seemed to be enthralled by something.  Her head bobbed subtly.

“Is she okay?”  Sam moved closer to her.

“Maybe she’s tired?”  Dean suggested under the theory that she could be nodding off.

“I’m going to try something.”  Cas said, then a moment later Kaylee’s eyes widened and she leaned back a little.  "I think she’s looking at my wings.“

"What?”  Dean & Ruby said in unison.

“She seems to be moving her head in rhythm with my flapping and she reacted when I ruffled them.”

“You have wings?”  Asked Sam with a more professional curiosity than Cas’ other friends.

“Flapping?”  Dean scooted a few feet away from Cas.

“They aren’t corporeal,”  Cas reassured Dean.  “or visible on a human spectrum.  All angels have them.”

“So wait, in all the time we’ve known you, you’ve just been standing around flapping your wings?”  Dean was trying to picture Cas running around on all their hunts with invisible wings & a halo.

“I don’t flap them all the time, just when I need to stretch.”  Cas replied a little defensively.

Ruby made her eyes black again, then stared at Cas.  She shook her head.

“I don’t see anything.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be able.”  Cas looked back at Kaylee.  "To my knowledge, demons can’t see angelic wings.“


	3. 2011

1/30/2011

Dean fell to his hands & knees.  The leader of the angels walked up behind him and grabbed a fistful of his hair.  He pulled Dean upright into a kneeling position, then pressed the tip of his angel blade to Dean's sternum.  Blood dripped from a gash on Dean's left cheek, his right arm was probably broken, and his angel blade had been lost in the brawl.

Cas had similarly been disarmed in the grossly unfair fight.  It had been six against two, which would have normally triggered the pair to flee, but the group of angels had found some way to block Cas' ability to teleport.  Unable to run, the result of the fight was largely inevitable with the only question being whether Dean would be taken alive or killed.

"Castiel, for your crimes against Heaven, you will be imprisoned until true & fearsome judgment may be brought upon you-" The leader, Ziniel, began stating the interim judgment, but he was interrupted.

"Please, spare him."  Cas’ words were directed at their captors, but he was staring at Dean.

"We have explicit orders.  He will be taken to Michael."

"You can't take him to Michael."  Cas didn't know what Michael wanted with Dean, but he knew it was nothing good.  The Archangel had no concern for the welfare of humans.  Whatever Dean was wanted for, his well being was not going to be a factor at all.  Maybe he’d be tortured for information regarding Sam, executed for the angels he’d killed, or used as a hostage in a game with stakes that were too high?  "Please, I'm begging you to let him go."

Cas' humility made several of the angels visibly uncomfortable.  An angel begging was almost unheard of, but to plead for a human was unimaginable.  The angel holding her blade to Cas' throat looked at Dean then at Cas in confusion.

"You will be imprisoned for treason and you only ask about him?  Why do you even care?"  Her voice was more curious than critical.

"If you take him to Michael, I’m sure he will be destroyed... If he is destroyed, then I will be as well- beyond anything Heaven could inflict on me directly."  Cas pulled his gaze away from Dean.  He stared at Ziniel with conviction.  "I'm in love with him."

The angels looked at each other with uncertainty.  The suggestion that an angel could be in love was taboo.  To some angels the idea was absurd, but to others it was offensive.  Ziniel scowled and tugged on Dean's hair, making his eyes water.  

Dean's jaw dropped and he his lips moved speechlessly.  He'd been struggling with the impossibility of his feelings for months.  It had been insane to think that Cas could ever have those thoughts too, so he had tried to bury his own.  But Cas had confessed them... too late.

"Love is a human emotion.  Our kind is above base emotions.  You’re just confused by your illness.  You’re wrong."  Ziniel said as he bared his teeth in a showing of anger.  The irony of his statements was lost in the wake of Cas' confession.

"Read my mind and tell me how wrong I am."  Cas replied defiantly.

It was considered inappropriate for one angel to read another's mind unless given permission.  This courtesy was even extended to hostile angels, though Cas had always taken the precaution of actively trying to shield his thoughts.  But now he let down his guard slightly, just enough to allow his feelings for Dean to be displayed.

Curiosity got the better of the six angels.  There was a painfully long pause while Cas' most personal confession was laid out on display for their captors... and Dean.  Dean barely moved, but for a small trembling and watering eyes that bordered on tears.  Hael looked at Dean for a few seconds, then moved her angel blade half an inch off of Cas' neck.

"It's no secret that you are sick.  But I had no idea that you'd allowed yourself to be poisoned by these creatures.  You disgust-"  Ziniel pointed his angel blade at Cas to emphasize his point, but as soon as the angel blade was a foot away from Dean's heart Hael disappeared.  Ziniel looked around confused for a moment before Hael's blade plunged through his back and out his chest.  

There was a split-second pause while the four remaining angels realized what was happening.  Hael had chosen sides and now each of them was being forced to do the same.  The angel closest to her lunged at her, but another intercepted him.  The remaining two entered the melee, each one trying to aid a different side.  It only took a few quick swings before Hael & the two friendly angels were standing over their three dead siblings.

"You two should go before reinforcements arrive."  Said Hael as she turned away from the bodies to instead look at Cas.  "We will tell them you escaped."

"Why are you doing this?"  Cas asked.  Her face was painted with disbelief at her own actions, but her lips flickered in joyful revelation.  When she spoke, she nearly smiled.

"They say that it's an abomination to love a human.  We're supposed to be more than them, to love them would make us weak.  But you are not weak."  She turned from Cas to Dean.  "You gain strength from your love for each other.  That should be protected, not punished.  If you both are to be killed for that... there is something wrong with Heaven, not you."

"Thank you all."  Cas nodded to the other angels.

"We may not be many, but you have some allies in Heaven.  Now go."

* * *

 They teleported back to Dean's cabin.  He was completely speechless.  Some angel had just read his innermost feelings and outed him.  He was embarrassed beyond immediate comprehension, but it was also a relief.  Being exposed was probably a small price to pay for sparing their lives, and also there was the unforeseen perk of the entire awkward event- Cas said he was in love with him.

They had both had their feelings for each other brought out into the open.  No more long nights laying in bed trying to decide whether to say anything.  No more wondering whether Cas' borderline intimate interactions were just an incomplete knowledge of customs or something more.  It was exciting & terrifying all at the same time.

Dean stared up at Cas for a moment, scared to do anything that might be the wrong thing.  Cas smiled in a way that was strangely reassuring.  Dean stood up slowly and shifted nervously.

"You're hurt."  Cas observed.  "Can I heal you?"

Cas had never asked for permission to heal him before, but Dean understood that he was trying to be respectful of Dean's confused feelings.  Dean could feel the trickle of blood cooling on his left cheek.  He nodded.  Cas held Dean's right arm with his left hand, reached out and cupped Dean's cheek gently, healing the flesh below.  It produced a delicate tingling sensation that made Dean close his eyes for a few seconds.

"Cas, I'm not sure what to do."  He spoke with an out of character helplessness.  Cas tilted his head, indicating his thoughtful reflection on the situation.  The familiar gesture made Dean feel safer if not less vulnerable.

"Can I try something?"  Cas asked.  Dean's pulse started to rise.  He wasn't entirely sure what Cas was planning.  No one ever knew what Cas was about to do and he knew the angel better than anyone in existence.  Cas was fearless, passionate, intelligent, but all hidden below a calm exterior as level and unmoving as a frozen lake.

"Okay."  Dean exhaled. Cas' fingers slid back to interlace with Dean's dirty blonde hair.  Cas stepped forward, pressing his lips against Dean's just as Dean finished taking in a startled breath.  The first thing that Dean noticed was the softness of Cas' lips.  He had assumed that for some reason guys must be rougher than women, but Cas' lips were some of the softest he'd ever felt.  

There were things about Cas that were predictably not feminine, but that didn't bother Dean as much as he'd expected.  Like when Dean moved one hand over Cas' shoulder to pull him closer, he’d never made out with someone almost his own height.  Or when they kissed harder, their mouths opening slightly, Dean felt his chin drag across Cas' five o'clock shadow.  The scratching sensation was surprising, both in its newness and in the excitement it produced in Dean's gut.  He gasped, then gripped Cas tighter and kissed deeper.  

In recent weeks, Dean had occasionally wondered what it'd be like to kiss Cas.  Knowing the two of them, he had expected it to be awkward and clumsy.  He wasn't entirely wrong, Cas barely knew what he was doing, but that was okay, Dean was also out of his element.  The thing he hadn't seen coming was that he didn't care that it was clumsy, that their noses bumped together, that Cas bit his lip a tad too hard, that Cas didn't know what to do with his hands- it felt good.  

Dean just went with it, trying not to overthink it, instead feeling it out.  Somewhere in the excitement his instincts took over and he found himself tumbling backward onto his bed, pulling Cas with him by the collar of the tan trench coat.  Without breaking from the kissing, Dean slid a hand up under Cas' suit jacket and pulled him closer.

Then it happened.  When Dean pulled Cas down onto him, his erection rubbed against Cas' hip, but Cas' erection also pressed against him.  Both of them were still fully clothed, but the feeling was unmistakable.  Dean was completely distracted from their intimate moment.  Cas' dick was sizable, like his own, and suddenly Dean felt entirely out of his depths.  He had no idea what to do- he had some idea, but he wasn't ready to plow ahead into such new territory just yet.

Dean stopped kissing Cas, who had also given into a more instinctual approach.  Cas leaned in to kiss Dean's neck below the jawline and Dean reflexively tilted his head back to allow better access.  Cas had begun grinding against Dean, making them both harder.  Dean started to feel overwhelmed.  He put a palm on Cas' chest and pushed up gently.

"Cas, hey, slow down."  Cas immediately stopped mid-grind, with their hard dicks still pressed between them.  "I think we should take things slower than this."

"Did I do something wrong?"  Cas pushed his upper body away from Dean & the bed, so that he could look Dean in the eyes.

"No!  It's not that.  I've just- I’ve never... done stuff with a guy.”  He felt like his stomach had knotted from just saying the words.  The idea of going any farther conjured images of him having a full on panic attack.  “I'm gonna need a little time to wrap my head around this... I don't want to fuck this up, not with you."

"I'm fine with whatever you need."

"Just some time.”  Dean reassured.  “Maybe taking one step at a time."

"Can I still kiss you going forward?"

"Oh, fuck yes- but let me tell Sam about us before you start doing it around anyone else."

"Okay.  When are you going to tell him?"  Cas didn’t seem to appreciate just how large a gesture talking to Sam would be.  The angel looked expectantly down at Dean, who swallowed hard and nodded to himself.

"I can do it.”  He said as both a reply and self-encouragement.  “I can do it... once I can walk easier."

"What do I do about this?"  Cas indicated his erection.

"You can use my shower."  Dean offered.  Seeing Cas' confused expression he added. "You'll figure it out."

* * *

 "Hey Sammy, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure.  What's up?"  Sam was lounging in a chair reading a book to Kaylee, who was sitting on his lap.  The Mysterious Stranger was far beyond the comprehension of an eighteen month old, but she entertained herself by playing with a toy dragon while Sam gently bounced her on his knee.

"So um, I wanted to tell you..."  He took a deep calming breath.  "Cas & I are gonna try something out."

"Okay, What?"

Dean was struggling to find the right words.  Dating seemed silly, it's not like they were gonna go to the movies and share popcorn- things were too crazy right now and who knew if Cas even liked movies.  Maybe he could try watching a movie with Cas one of the nights they were at the camp or in a motel room that had halfway decent cable.

"Being a- well- more than friends."  Sam put down his book and straightened up in his chair.  Dean could feel his ears and cheeks turning red.  He wouldn't have been surprised if he'd have died of a heart attack in that moment, waiting to see how Sam would react.  

"You guys are like going to be a couple?"  Sam's eyebrow raised and he smiled.

"I guess..."

"That's great, I'm happy for you two."

"Really?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"  Sam's brow furrowed in confusion, then his smile started fading.  Dean looked terrified.  He was sweating and trembling slightly.  Sam hadn't seen him so upset in about a year, during his last stress & Abyssal induced panic attack. "Did you think I'd be upset?"

"I don't know... I thought that... I'm not sure."  Dean rubbed his face in a move that disguised him wiping some moisture from his eyes.

"Dean, I'm not dad.  I don't care if Cas is a guy or angel or whatever.  I just want you to be happy."  Sam was trying to be reassuring and firmly lay out his position.

"I just-"  Dean's eyes darted around uncomfortably before settling on Sam's shirt.  "I know you're not dad, but I couldn't help thinking of what he'd say.  He'd be so pissed at me."

"Pissed at you? Seriously, I'm the King of Hell and am in a serious relationship with a demon."  Sam held up Kaylee.  "My daughter has horns.  You think dad would really be pissed at you?"

"I'm probably gonna end up blowing a guy."  Dean confessed weakly.  Sam nodded his head in acknowledgement of Dean's point.

"Dad had really weird priorities."  They both frowned for a few seconds, then Sam smiled up at Dean excitedly.  "When you called me that morning for advice on how to explain being-"

Dean raised his hand to silence Sam, but it just made Sam smile more broadly.

"You're in love with Cas?"  Sam said in a combination of teasing & gleeful gushing.

"Fuck- I guess.  I don’t know, man.  I mean, it's not like I'm going through all this,"  Dean waved his arms around trying to indicate all the stress he'd been experiencing related to his feelings.  "because I want to hit it & quit it."

* * *

 

April 13, 2011

Sam was seated on his throne researching the history of the Arbris caste.  They were one of the smallest castes by overall population, but they probably wielded the most power per capita within Hell.  Every freshly broken soul was evaluated by an Arbris demon and assigned to their most appropriate caste… or at least that’s how it was supposed to work.  

The reality of the situation was less disciplined.  Occasionally, souls would be collected by Archdemons even before they were broken.  That had happened to Dean, who was such a coveted commodity that Lilith had stolen his contract before it had even come due.  And with the Pits currently half-held by Lilith’s forces, at least half the new demons were beyond the reach of the Arbris, who dared not venture into hostile territory even to perform their vital charge.  The result was that a disproportionate number of new demons were filling the ranks of the castes which supported Lilith, indoctrinated by Archdemons eager to grow their own castes.

Within the allied Pits, there were a slightly smaller number of dungeons working the tender souls into demons, but they were operated by skeleton crews.  Very few of the captured Torquean demons, who specialized in breaking souls, had switched allegiance.  And while the Arbris understood the importance of restoring depleted ranks, they were forbidden from assigning castes against their best judgment just to meet a of quota.  

The need to adhere to custom & tradition somewhat hindered their ability to create a massive army, but it did produce a very content & loyal population.  Early in his rule, Sam had suggested to his advisors the idea of eliminating the Luxia caste.  The Luxia, led by Lilith, was the holy caste whose role was to act in service to Lucifer.  While it would’ve been a rather bold statement to culturally & politically excommunicate Lilith’s entire caste, it was eventually decided against.  Aside from the fact that Sam had to keep up the facade of piety, the loss of an entire caste would likely be seen as a threat to all castes.  And even though there was a large amount of resentment between the castes on both sides of the war, the respect for the institution itself was fundamental.

Since they couldn’t dissolve a caste to reassign its demons and the Arbris had their hands bound by the standards of their caste, there was a mere trickle new demons replacing the ranks on Sam & Crowley’s side.  To the extent any of those new demons belongs to castes whose Archedemon was on Lilith’s side, those new demons were assigned to a psuedo-Archdemons.  No one referred to the allied leaders of the otherwise enemy castes as Archdemon.  Despite the animosity toward Lilith or Alastair, for example, referring to their own leaders of the Luxia or Torquean castes as Archdemon would be an insult to the democratic nature of the individual castes.  Sam couldn’t appoint an Archdemon without suffering significant backlash and possibly having to quell a revolt.  

When Lilith had initially drawn troops to Earth to begin her mission to break the seals, Crowley had managed to primarily use the labor of imprisoned demons.  Ruby had been released under that policy decision, but she'd simply been returned to her own caste.  Very few demons had actually crossed caste lines it substitute in for lost manpower.  But with so many demons revolting, trying to temporarily reassign enough demons to fill the gaps would equally threaten the integrity of the caste system.

Traditions were almost everything in a place as old as Hell, so Sam decided to research the Arbris to see if there was anyway to grow their populations within the castes with divided loyalties.  Maybe if they could get the allied populations high enough to gain the majority, it might make the hostile members of that caste reconsider their loyalties.  It was a system that at times barely made sense to a human, but demons had a very different relationship to the chain of command & allegiances- for better or worse.

 The tome Sam read was absolutely fascinating, though he still had trouble understanding some uncommon words in Abyssal.  Every once in awhile he'd need to look away from the pages to clear his mind before returning to the text.  While reading about a particularly interesting passage about an Arbris being placed on trial for taking bribes roughly four thousand years ago, Sam’s eyes lost focus, he felt the vision beginning.

This was one of the stronger ones- the ones that seemed to come on when he slept.  But in Hell, he didn't sleep.  For some reason this one was breaking through in spite of it.  The hall was quiet, so he didn't fight the vision.  Even with the whole Arbris matter at hand, there wasn't anything so urgent that it should’ve stop him from letting the vision play out.

There was a beautiful forest, full of plants that he didn't recognize.  The trees were massive & ancient, extending up to create tiered canopies of green, yellow, & blue leaves.  Willowy branches hung, shedding silvery-white wisps that floated through the air.  The bark of the trees came in every color imaginable.  Vines & ferns cluttered the forest floor, but reached upward along the tree trunks.  Nearly every vine & tree grew beautiful flowers that smelled divine.  It was completely insanity, but it was the most breathtaking place he had ever seen.

In the distance he could see a woman walking alone through the forest.  She was maybe in her twenties with dark eyes and tan skin.  Her black unkempt hair reached below her hips, providing her only source of modesty.  She was naked & unarmed, surrounded but the bizarre wilderness... but she wasn't afraid or even vulnerable- she was angry.  Betrayal & rage seemed to radiate from her and it made Sam feel a little nauseous.

She knelt down to look at a small bird of some type that Sam couldn't identify.  The bird was lying on the ground, sickly & weak.  She picked it up, stroked its feathers gently, then snapped its neck.  Her hand clutched the dead bird as she stood up and stared at a wilting flower on a nearby tree.  The forest was dying, slowly, but inevitably.  It was being poisoned by something.

Suddenly, the woman screamed.  She dropped the dead bird as she fell to her knees and clasped her hands to her ears.  At first Sam didn't understand what had happened, then he could hear it too.  It was high-pitched and incredibly loud at first, but it quickly lowered into a more tolerable frequency.

"We can make it right.  The way it was- better even."  The voice was oppressive and Sam was amazed that the woman hadn't passed out from the assault on her senses.  It was a struggle for him and he wasn't even the voice's target.  "That rage inside of you, hold onto it.  It will serve you well, Lilith."

She finally fell to the ground unconscious.  Sam felt a chill run through him.  Somehow he knew that the voice had turned its attention to him.  This wasn't like any vision he'd had before.  He'd only ever observed events, nothing had ever reacted to him.  But the voice was most definitely aware of him too.

Sam tried to snap himself out of the vision, but there was a strange resistance.  Panic started to set in and even though most of his senses had been taken over by the vision, he could feel his body jerk with a start.  He tried to stand up, thinking that physical activity might shake him out of the vision.  For a split second the throne room blended seamlessly into the forest.  Seizing the opportunity, he tried to take a step, but collapsed from the effort.

"Can you hear me, Sam?"  Whispered the voice in surprise.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying on grey stone floor of the throne room.  He was on his side and his head was killing him.  Mir & Shola knelt around him, checking to see if he was alright.  He started to lift himself up, but stopped part way in shock.  A few feet beyond Shola, he saw a tiny plant sprouting from the stone floor.  Its diminutive green form stood out against the deathly grey background.  He reached for it, but passed out.

* * *

 "What's the significance of the pocket watch?"  Cas asked from his perch on the corner of the bed.

"You're not supposed to know yet, just take it at face value for now."  Dean took a hit, then rolled over on the bed to pass the joint to Isa.  She was sitting on a small pile of couch cushions that had been piled on the floor next to Dean’s bed.

Dean had finally assembled his small entertainment system in his room and was enthusiastically showing it off to Cas, Isa, & Flo.  He’d been hoping to get Ruby & Aimé in on the first movie night, but his bedroom was on the small side.  Instead it was just the four of them enjoying a few beers & whatever Isa deemed to be a good intoxicant pairing with a spaghetti western.  The television was only 28”, but considering it was the only television they had in the camp, no one was complaining.  

Dean had initially resigned himself to sacrificing his entire closet to blu-ray storage, since they had no cable or satellite service to provide other sources of media, aside from a fairly slow magic-based internet connection.  But Flo had managed to set Dean up with a terabyte hard drive full of pirated movies & series.  She had taken a lot of pleasure ‘bringing Dean into the 21st century’ by making a media server to host everything, though she hadn’t yet networked the other cabins.  As a result, Dean’s bedroom was their temporary secret clubhouse/theater.

"Look at those beauties."  Said Flo as she elbowed Dean's side to make sure his attention was drawn to the screen.  She shared the bed with Dean, who stretched out on the left side, and Cas, who sat at her feet.  In the movie, one of the protagonists unveiled his collection of sophisticated firearms.  Some of the guns were absurdly ornate, but the fantastic variety made her eyes glint.

"Van Cleef has the nice toys, but Eastwood can get by without it- that's a hell of a thing."  Dean grinned over at Flo.  “It’s about being the kinda badass that can stare down a bad guy without anything but your will.”

“I’ve seen a lot in my years, but I’ve never seen will win a firefight.”  Flo countered.

“Did you even watch the first movie?”  Dean asked with surprise.

“That was innovation.”  She waved off his implied point.  “Score one for team tech.”  

“Aren’t you a witch?  What the fuck do you mean that will doesn’t win?”

“Magic doesn’t count as willpower, that stuff takes a lot of calculations.  You should really take some lessons from Rubahnali.”  She suggested.

Everyone knew that Dean was the adult in the camp with the least experience spellcasting.  He’d always left the magic stuff to Sam, then Cas had adopted that role when they partnered up.  At times it bothered him that he was the odd one out on that front, but he did have a different role than most.  He was the best fighter once you leveled the playing field by striping away all the powers.  When Cas & he were fighting humans or monsters Cas had the obvious advantage, but when Cas’ powers didn’t give him an edge against their enemy, Dean’s experience was usually the deciding factor in the fight.

The idea of dabbling in magic felt like a trap to Dean.  Over the years, he’d seen a lot of people become too dependant on using magic.  In all honesty, he thought Sam was letting his basic combat skills fall by the wayside.  Magic could be just as much a handicap as it could be a resource and he tried to remember that... though there might be some value in at least learning enough theory to lend a hand in a pinch.

There was a knock on the cabin door, then Bobby came in.  He looked concerned, but wasn't moving quickly enough to be panicked.

"Dean, get up-"

"Are we fighting or running?"  Dean asked casually because Bobby wasn't armed.

"No."

"Can it wait until after the movie?"

"Sam's back."  It was always a bad sign when Sam got back from Hell early.  "He's not hurt bad or anything, but he looks something awful."

Dean tried to get up off the bed in spite of the fact that his limbs were still a little too heavy from the two joints he’d worked through over the last hour.  He pushed up on his elbow and meant to swing himself upright, but only succeeded in rolling onto Isa.  She broke out in helpless giggles, while he hastily made sure he wasn't crushing or groping her.

"Cas, little help please."  Dean asked.

Cas patiently walked around the bed and touched the back of Dean's head.  Dean quickly climbed off Isa with his newfound sobriety, then rushed out of his cabin.

* * *

 Sam was laying on the couch in his living room.  He hadn't bothered to take off his shoes and he had only unbuttoned his jacket.  Dean was actually surprised to see one of those long coats that Sam wore in Hell.  Sam had stopped bringing them topside after Dean had jokingly called the design a dress.  Dean had regretted the joke after Tom had immediately gone into the bathroom to take a bow out of his hair.  Dean apologized & gave reassurances, which were well taken, but he noticed that Sam still left the jackets in Hell from then on.  Something must've really spooked Sam, if he hadn't stopped to change clothes before porting back home.  

The scene itself was unnerving.  There was a damp washcloth covering Sam's forehead & eyes.  Ruby sat in a chair next to him, holding onto his near wrist.  Dean hoped it was just to provide comfort and not to monitor his pulse.  Tom hovered in the doorway to his room, holding Kaylee.

"What happened?"  Asked Dean as he entered the cabin, followed by Bobby & Cas.

"He had a vision or something.  It knocked him out."  Offered Ruby.

"A vision?  He's been good with those for over a year."

"There was... something weird about it."  Sam murmured.

“Hey, Cas.”  Ruby caught the angel’s attention, then pulled the washcloth back from Sam’s face slightly.  Sam cringed at the contact and Dean could see why.  A nasty looking bruise was forming just above Sam’s right temple.  “Stone floors.”

“I’ll tell Crowley to carpet the place.”  Sam joked, but his audible fatigue prevented everyone from smiling.  Cas softly touched the injury, which disappeared.  Sam removed the washcloth, but didn't try to get up, he just looked exhausted.

“So what literally mind blowing news packs that big a punch?”  Asked Dean.  Sam chewed his lip while trying to remember.

"I think there was a woman... maybe it was a bird.”  Sam said uncertainly.  “Something was wrong."

"Sure as hell seems that way."  Added Ruby as she examined the section of Sam's skull that had possibly had a fracture or two moments ago.

"And there was a sound... It was so intense..."  Sam frown at the memory of the sensation.  "I think someone was talk to me."

"Someone was talking in your vision?"  Ruby asked in an attempt to be helpful.

"No- maybe.  I mean, I think they were trying to talk to me- like the real me."  Everyone stared at him in confusion.  "I've had dreams where I can interact with people and maybe there's a little bit of foreshadowing like an omen, but this felt different.  Something was looking at me and it was real."

"Something got into your vision?"  Asked Bobby.

"It didn't just get into it, I think it made it.  I've never had a vision downstairs before and..."  He hesitated.  "That thing, tried to keep me in the vision."

"What- What the fuck is even capable of something like that?"  Dean paced in alarm.

"There's a chance that it may have been your angel trying to contact you.  On several occasions I spoke to this vessel, and it was considerably easier while he was asleep.  Your vision state might be a comparable level of consciousness or even be more accessible..."  Cas trailed off and scowled slightly.

"I'm sensing a 'but'."

"But your angel shouldn't have hurt you.  We never intentionally harm our vessels- even with Heaven attempting to kill you, I’d expect your angel to recuse itself from any violence.  It may have been an accident that you were harmed, some sort of reaction to your Abyssal nature."

"Like an angel allergy?"  Dean analogized.

"I don't know about the whole angel idea."  Sam looked up at Cas skeptically.  "We're pretty warded up against angels downstairs.  I don't understand how the signal could get through."

“Could you hit up your Heavenly turncoats to see if they know who might be doing this?”  Asked Ruby.

“There isn’t a way to investigate an angel’s bloodline discreetly.  It would be incredibly dangerous if they were caught, and we don’t even know that this really is the work of an angel.”

“So what do we do next?”  Asked Sam as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“If it happens again, I suggest you ask what it wants.”

* * *

 April 15, 2011

Dean was standing in the middle of a tranquil meadow, untouched by man or beast… until now.  The grassland was littered with hundreds of crumpled bodies.  Each was beautiful & timeless and he knew that each one was someone he loved... but at the same time he didn't recognize any of their faces.  None of them were supposed to die, ever... yet their wings had scorched the soil.

Cold sweat dripped down his back as he realized he was in a killing field of angels.  He looked around in a panic for Cas.  His hands trembled as he rolled over bodies, hoping that none of them contained those bright blue eyes.  A strange heat prickling the back of his neck and at first he mistook it for adrenaline.  But it was beyond warmth, it was hatred... but it wasn’t his.  There was something else there that was watching him and the creature was seething.

Dean stood up and spun around, trying to see the thing that had he’d sensed.  Instead of the meadow, a graveyard extended before him.  An endless number of headstones reached back to some far away time & place.  Slightly apart from the rest were two headstones before open graves.  He moved closer to try to read the two headstones, but one's surface had been gouged, obscuring the name.

Suddenly, there was an overwhelming howling sound that reverberated in his core.  Dean fell to his knees and covered his ears.  He felt like he was screaming in pain, but the sound was too loud for him to be sure.  His ears may have started bleeding, he wasn’t about to remove his hands to check.  The strange sound wavered, eventually almost sounding like words.

"Dean, where are you?  It's almost time."

He woke up in his own bed to find Cas standing over him looking concerned.  His body was covered in sweat and he was shaking.  A second later, Bobby & Flo ran into his cabin.  Bobby looked like he’d stopped halfway through brushing his teeth and held a shotgun.  Flo’s long hair frizzed out chaotically, she was wearing a small periwinkle nightgown, and had her Desert Eagle in hand.  Everyone stared at Dean expectantly, but he didn’t understand what they were waiting for.

"What's going on?"  Bobby asked, looking around for a threat.

"I don't know."  Dean tried to sit up, but his head hurt and he felt faint.  He rubbed the heels of his palms over his eyes to create a different sensation than the sharp pain that pulsed in his skull.

"You were screaming in your sleep."  Explained Cas.  Dean lowered his hands so that he could confirm the serious expression in Cas’ face.  He’d had a lot of rough nights, but he was pretty sure that he’d never screamed.

"Screaming is a bit of an understatement.”  Bobby’s posture relaxed slightly at the realization that he probably was going to have to shoot anything, though he was far from okay with the situation.  “I think you woke the whole camp up."

"Speaking of, I'm going to let the others know it's ok."  Flo said as she put the safety back on her pistol, then left the room.

"This was worse than your normal nightmares.”  Cas observed.  “Do you remember anything about what happened?"

"There was death... something was angry- and a loud noise, but I could've sworn it was talking to me."  Dean's eyes widened as he tried to sit up despite the headache.

"You mean like Sam?"  Asked Bobby.

"Both of you having these dreams or visions within a day of each other does indicate that your angel might be trying to contact you.  It may have decided to try you after failing to communicate with Sam.”  Suggested Cas.  “Do you know what it was trying to say?"

"It... It asked where I was."  The creature was looking for him… or them.  Dean heart was pounding and he swayed a little as he stared at nothing.  Cas gripped his shoulder to help stabilize him.

"Did you tell it?"  Bobby asked with audible concern.

"No- no!"  Dean shook his head, then looked to Cas.  "Cas woke me up."

“If that thing is an angel, could it find us through Dean & Sam?”  Bobby asked Cas, who thought for an ominously long time.

“We’ll need more warding.”

* * *

 Dean didn’t go back to sleep.  Instead he drank almost an entire carafe of coffee while watching Cas & Ruby discuss possible designs for a ward to block the vessel-angel link.  Sam had looked surprisingly cheerful when he got home a few hours later.  He entered the cabin with a small black porcelain cup containing a baby plant, but it was quickly set aside at the news that an angel might be trying to locate them.  Sam tried to offered whatever input he could in the design process, but Cas & Ruby were the clear experts.

“If we put this type of warding on the skin it’ll fade after a few years- and not just switching off one day, it’ll weaken over time and your feathery friend will start getting bigger & bigger peeks in.”  Ruby pointed out as she tapped her pen on the table.

“I can inscribe bone.”  Cas offered, causing Ruby to nod thoughtfully.

“You mean like cutting up our bones?”  Dean asked.  “Awesome.”

“It’ll be quite painful.”  Cas confessed.  Dean & Sam glanced at each other unenthusiastically.  “But the pain should pass after a minute.”

“I think we can fit the warding on three vertebrae.”  Suggested Ruby as she flipped through her fifteen pages of sketches & notes.

“The length of a femur might offer an easier surface area.”

“Yeah, but the alignment on the spine-”  Ruby began, but was interrupted by the sound of Kaylee crying in the nursery.

“I got it, you keep designing.”  Sam said as he got up from his seat.  He squeezed Ruby’s shoulder as he left the room.

“So, if a warding bone gets broken are we fair game?  If so, you might want to avoid limbs.”  Asked Dean.

“That could be a problem.”  Admitted Cas.

“I’m just saying, I’ve had a lot of broken bones, but never the back.  It might be safer that way.”

Sam came back into the living room carrying Kaylee.  She was wearing purple frog covered pajamas and was crying quietly.  One small hand clutched Sam’s shirt while the other held her head.  Her eyes were clenched in pain and she pressed her head against Sam’s chest.

“Guys,”  Sam gently patted her back, trying to sooth her.  “I think we have a problem.”

“No fucking way.”  Dean exhaled.

"Cas,”  Ruby accidentally snapped her pen in half, then continued.  “we finish these wards and then you’re gonna start beating the bushes because I am gonna fucking kill that angel.”

* * *

7/27/2011

The seraphim charged Dean, who tried to dodge, but was clipped by the angel.  Dean spun around and stumbled to his knees, yet tried to bounce back in spite of having the wind knocked out of him.  Cas moved to block the seraphim from swinging at Dean, but the more powerful angel telekinetically threw Cas aside.

Instead of bringing his blade down on Dean, the seraphim held out its palm.  The angel's eyes began to glow as the hairs on Dean's arms started to stand on end and the air smelled like ozone.  Dean glanced at Cas just in time to see him reach out toward Dean, then everything went black.

When Dean woke up his whole body ached and his right side felt like it was on fire.  He was laying on a combination of asphalt & rubble.  With a little effort he lifted his head to look around. There had been an explosion or blast of sorts.  A truck had been flipped onto its side, smoke rose from a crater about thirty feet away.  Propping himself up, Dean realized that his right side was covered with a bad case of road rash.  He tried standing up, which proved a bit challenging because his balance was shot.  His left ear was bleeding and couldn't hear a thing.  That seemed like a small blessing compared to the damned crackling that was coming from his right ear.  After a few missteps, Dean reached the edge of the crater, then scrambled down in terror.

Cas was crumpled and bloody, pressed into a pile of debris.  Dean felt for a pulse.  He was unconscious, which frightened Dean above all else.  To Dean's knowledge Cas had only ever fallen unconscious after fighting Uriel & exerting a huge amount of power.  There were obvious injuries to his vessel, but he was physically intact.

Dean carefully dragged Cas into the Impala, drove him to their motel room, then laid the angel on the bed.  He had never seen Cas so badly injured and had no idea what to do.  Taking him to a hospital wouldn't do much beyond the surface, the real damage was invisible to human eyes.  Kneeling beside the bed, Dean prayed to Hael, begging her to come heal Cas.  

After a few seconds she appeared behind Dean.  She took a step toward Cas then stopped.  Her lips trembled in shock as she put a hand to her mouth.

"Please, you have heal him."  Dean implored, but she didn't move.  

"I... I can't heal these injuries."  Her voice was soft & pained.  She swallowed, then shook some negative thought from her head.  "I'm not powerful enough to repair the damage.  I can't heal above my choir and this is... I will go to Heaven- I might be able to find..."

"What is it?  What do you need?"  Dean asked, eager to know what he could do you help.

"An angel wielding more power than the amount that inflicted the harm."

As they were beginning the fight, Cas had told him the angel was a seraphim, the highest choir below Archangels.  It didn't sound impossible to find an angel capable of throwing around more power than a seraphim attempting whatever that blast was- it just sounded suicidal.  Hael nodded to him as a parting gesture, but he weakly grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving.

"Hael, if they find out you're helping us..."  Dean didn't want to turn down any help he could get for Cas, but he knew that Hael would risk being outed as fallen if she started looking for sympathy in the highest ranks.

"I have to try."  She disappeared.

Dean returned to Cas’ side, then felt his clammy cheeks.  The vessel's breath rattled and cut out intermittently.  Leaning down he kissed Cas' lips, which tasted like blood.  He wiped the blood from his mouth, then the tears from his eyes.  Dean ran to the trunk of the Impala, grabbed the tin box, and buried it hastily in the closest crossroads he could find.  He waited a few seconds, but when no demon appeared he ran back to the motel room to check on Cas.  

Crowley was standing next to the bed, looking down at the angel.  The Archdemon's expression was disappointed contemplation and Dean's heart sank when he wasn't greeted by some snarky one liner.  The demon's lips curled down slightly, just like Hael's had while giving bad news only minutes earlier.

"You've got to save him!"  Dean was caught between demanding & begging.  After all he had to carry some weight in the demon community.

"I can't."  Said Crowley in a more neutral tone than he usually put on for Sam's brother.

"I'll deal, I'll do whatever, just don't let him die!"  Dean was panicking.  He wasn't even thinking about having Sam get him out of the pit on a technicality or through raw nepotism- he was ready to make the hard deal, but Crowley wasn't taking it.

"I wish I could, but demons can't just flip the switch on angels.  We don't have that kind of power."

He'd tried Heaven & Hell, with no sign of hope.  Human medicine & magical healing had never done much of anything for Cas.  

"What am I supposed to do?"  Dean asked, as he sat down on the bed, a tear trickled down his right stinging cheek.

"He is an angel, I suggest you pray."

* * *

 Sam knocked on the motel room door, then entered.  Dean was sitting cross legged on the queen size bed with Cas' unconscious body.  He was holding Cas' hand, fingers intertwined with his own, to his lips.  Sam could hear Dean finish whispering something before turning to look at Sam.

"Crowley told me..."  Sam crouched down, next to the bed and touched Cas' free hand.  "I'm sorry."

It was a bizarre sight.  Sam had never actually seen Cas in a vulnerable state before.  Back in New Orleans, Cas had been in decent shape by the time he had regained consciousness.  Since then, the two of them had almost exclusively seen each other at the camp when Cas & Dean were between hunts.  Dean was the only one that ever really saw Cas' cuts & bruises.

Similarly, Cas was the only one that ever saw Dean's affectionate side.  Sam had known about their relationship for about six months, but had barely seen any evidence of it.  Occasionally, one of them might briefly squeeze the other's hand and Dean let slip a 'babe' a few times while distracted, but otherwise he couldn't think of a public display of affection that he'd witnessed.  

He was pretty certain that they had some sort of physical relationship- Dean had mentioned the possibility when he told Sam about them.  Then there was the time Sam called them about an emergency last month and Cas had hastily teleported them to camp while they both were only about half dressed.  As long as they were happy it was fine with him, but seeing Dean holding Cas' hand and nervously kissing it... it was unsettling to see what was surely Dean's vulnerability.

"Hael went to Heaven- she was trying to find help... She's been gone for too long."  Dean lowered his head behind his hands, which were still interwoven with Cas', blocking Sam's concerned gaze.

"She's probably just being careful."  Sam offered hopefully, but Dean barely seemed to hear him.  Silence grew as Sam struggled to think of anything reassuring to say.

"Sammy, he can't die."  Dean shook his head, triggering several tears to roll free from his eyes.  "I need him."

"He's tough, how else has he been able to deal with you?"  A tiny sad smile flickered on Dean's face.  “He'll make it."

Sam pulled a few strings and was able to get Cas & Dean teleported back to the comfort of their cabin.  For almost two days Dean barely left Cas’ side.  He slept beside him, holding his hand.  He ate whatever food was forced upon him, next to the bed.  And when he wasn’t eating or sleeping he was quietly praying for Cas to hear him and wake up.

On the second night, Dean was weakly mumbling the same prayer he’d said a thousand times that day, when Cas squeezed his hand back.  It took several more hours before Cas was fully conscious.  Cas was still incredibly weak, so they stayed in bed for another day.

On the third day, Dean confided to Cas that the hearing in his left ear was still gone and the slight crackling in his right wasn’t going away.  Once he had a little more strength, Cas tried to heal Dean.  The hope was that the cause of Dean’s hearing loss was the impact on the road instead of the blast caused by the more powerful angel.  After they discovered that Cas couldn’t heal the hearing loss, Dean spent another day in bed completely unrelated to Cas’ health.  Dean reluctantly allowed Cas to tell Sam about the situation and within hours Flo was tinkering with four different models of hearing aids.

On the sixth day, Hael found them in their cabin.  She looked a little dazed, but unharmed.  After hugging both Cas & Dean, she took a seat in their tiny livingroom.  They were grateful to see that she was alive, but Dean wanted to know why she had been completely off the map for almost a week.

"Hael, are you okay?  What happened to you?"  Dean tried not to sound too critical of her absence.

"I'm not injured.  I'm so sorry I couldn't get here sooner.  Heaven is in a state of unrest, they temporarily closed the gates out."

"What?"  Cas was shocked.  It had been centuries since Heaven had closed its borders.

"Zadkiel was discovered to be a supporter of you two.  He was offered rehabilitation in exchange for public penance.  When he was presented to the Host, he openly rebelled-"  She stared at nothing, recalling the memory.  "It was incredible.  He killed himself."

"He killed himself?"

"He said 'We can know love beyond obedience and we can know beauty beyond Heaven.  I would gladly die to protect love than kill to suppress it.'  Then he used his blade on himself."  The worded made Dean blush with embarrassment, but he pushed the spectacle of his personal life being aired in Heaven from his mind.

"I don't understand.  If he was a prisoner being marched out to read a script, why didn't a guard try to stop him?"  Dean asked.

"This is the first time since Lucifer that an angel rebelling against Heaven didn't merely flee.  They probably didn't expect him to end his life over something like personal conviction."  Cas speculated.

The idea of someone killing himself for anything less than personal conviction surprised Dean, but angels didn't think the same way as humans.  Personal opinions were a relatively foreign concept to Heaven.  But more than that, death was an even more terrifying prospect to angels than to humans.  Angels didn't have souls.  When they died, as far as anyone knew, they merely ceased to exist.  Never to be resurrected or replaced.

"How is everyone taking it?"  Concern spread across Cas’ face.

"Mostly it's sparked confusion.  There's an effort to quell discussion of his death and your relationship.  But word of his rebellion has spread faster than anyone expected- it's unbelievable."

"I would've thought the big guys up there would just order everyone to stop talking about it?"  Dean mused.  "It doesn't really sound like you guys have free speech."

"We're telepathic.  We can share thoughts covertly..."  Hael looked overwhelmed by something akin to joy.  "Something's changed though.  When we spared your lives and now with Zadkiel's gesture.  Some of us... we’ve... been sharing emotions."

"Emotions?”  Cas’ voice was uncharacteristically quiet.

"We were trying to be careful who we shared it with so that we aren't found out, but once Castiel’s love & Zadkiel’s defiance reach the low choir..."  Hael smiled.  

A strange realization hit Dean, she wasn’t feeling something like joy- a cheap angel knockoff.  She was feeling the real thing.  That’s why she looked so dazed, she was processing a huge amount of emotional information.  It was like she’d become infected… Dean thought back to Ziniel & Uriel referring to Cas’ ‘illness’... and Zadkiel had just poisoned the well.

"More angels fell."  Dean wasn’t even asking a question.

"Yes, the cherubs."

"Which ones?"  Asked Cas.

"All of them.  Zadkiel’s defiance entered their choir- they were already familiar with love, but now..."  Hael giggled in surprised amusement.  "They held a vote- a vote!  The results were 328 to 22.  All 350 fell a few hours ago."

"An entire choir can't just fall?"  Cas was in a state of disbelief.

"Is Heaven going after them?”  Dean could see it now at least 350 angels, touched down on Earth hours ago, looking for what?  Freedom?  Sanctuary?  

"I don't think the higher choirs know what to do.  They can't imprison or kill all of the cherubs.  As long as the choir stays united it will be difficult to punish any of them."  Said Hael.

"What do you mean?"

"There are a finite number of angels overall and in each choir.  Only God can create new angels and that hasn't happened since before Lucifer's rebellion.  If the cherubs stay in rebellion or are killed, the choir's entire function will be lost."

"So your lowest choir just took itself hostage?"

"Essentially, yes.  Heaven has suffered a loss that it can't simply absorb."

And he'd thought they were on Heaven's bad side before...


	4. 2012

6/10/2012

"You aren't going to have a burger?"

"The sign said they have good chili dogs, so I figure I'll try what they're pushing."  Dean pointed to the chalkboard sign near the diner's entrance as he explained his choice.  Cas looked around & furrowed his brow.

"Did you hear something?"

"No."  Dean scowled briefly as he compulsively ran his fingers through his hair to puff it up a bit.  "What?"

"I'm not sure... never mind.”  Cas returned his attention to the conversation.  “I just thought that you don't like hot dogs."

"It's not that I don't like hot dogs.  I just prefer burgers."  Cas was getting a better grasp of aesthetic pleasures & preferences, but he hadn't yet figured out the importance of variety.  It had been like pulling teeth trying to get him to even change his tie occasionally- and it's not like it was a drastic change, all three of Cas' ties were blue.  But the lightest shade had been deemed the favorite and why should he settle for less?

"Could you have a chili burger?"

"Cas, first of all you don't have to try to solve all my problems.  Secondly, a chili dog is far from a problem- until maybe an hour or two later.  Third, chili dogs are a traditional food, but I've never heard of a chili burger before- listen, maybe you should try a bite, otherwise you aren't fully appreciating the cultural phenomenon."

"It seemed... intense."  Right on cue, the waitress dropped off their meals.

"Have you ever even tried anything spicy?"  Dean asked Cas as he picked a few pieces of chopped onion off the top of his chili dog. Cas cautiously eyed the sloppy pile of meat & starch from the other side of the booth.

"No, the concept isn't appealing.  We experience enough pain without seeking it out in our free time.  It's only going to be made worse-"

The sound of a glass breaking on the floor drew their attention.  At first they both gave it little more thought than any of the other times that a server had accidentally dropped something, then they noticed why she had dropped it.  The waitress stood completely still, staring up at a small wall-mounted television.  Three other patrons had stopped eating and were watching the screen.  The waitress scrambled to pull her cellphone from her pocket, then ran into the back.

The television showed breaking news.  Live shots from a helicopter, circling a fire in some city.  At first it was hard to tell the scale of the fire, but as the camera zoomed out it was clear that at least three city blocks were consumed.

Dean climbed out of the booth and walked over to the television.  The news anchor was mostly stating disbelief at the footage, but the ticker at the bottom of the screen was more helpful.  An explosion had occurred moments ago in downtown Indianapolis.  Aside from several buildings that appeared to have been leveled in the blast, most of the area had simply ignited in a massive fireball.  First responders were on route, but the sheer scale of the crisis was probably beyond their ability to contain anytime soon.  

"Dean."  He turned back to look at Cas and saw what the angel had wanted to bring to his attention.  Out the window next their booth, on the horizon a small plume of smoke was rising.  Dean glanced between the news report and the window.  The diner was about 15 miles west of the fire.

"Cas, is there anything you can do?"  As much as Dean wanted to do something to help, he was just one guy against an inferno.  Even with all his training and skills, he’d still be just a man running into smoke & flame without equipment.  Cas didn’t need to breathe and could teleport victims to safety- but he would invariably put Dean’s wellbeing first and would just be stuck aiding Dean if he insisted on going too.  Dean would have to sit out this round of action.

"I'll try."  Before Cas could teleport away, Dean grabbed his arm.

"Don't end up on TV."  Cas nodded, then disappeared.

* * *

 "I'm looking for some witnesses to a huge explosion in Indianapolis."  Dean glanced around the diner’s parking lot to make sure that nobody was eavesdropping on his call to Sam.  Luckily, everyone seemed to be riveted to the television inside.  The view of the burning city from the parking lot was unobstructed, but nowhere near as detailed as the live news coverage.  

“Something special about it?”

“This thing is big, like-”  Dean looked at the television through one of the diner’s windows.  “It just jumped a river.  I’m thinking maybe one of the seals?  You might have one of Lilith's meatsuits or something headed your way.”

"How long ago did it happen?"

"About ten minutes."  Dean could hear Sam sigh on the other end on the line.  Him not living up to Hell's standards of timeliness had been a common point of frustration for his little brother.  The combination of the time conversion and Hell involving so many moving parts made punctuality a big deal to the bureaucrats downstairs, among who Sam was definitely counted.

"I'm going to need some time to work on this.  With that big a window, anyone who died in the explosion itself would already be going through the system, passed where the queue fades away.  There are probably at least 200,000 souls down in that part of the pool, so it'll take awhile on our end- and that's assuming it hasn't trickled into Lilith's territory. But I'll try to see if I can find you any accounts of what happened."

"Let me know if we can help."  Dean didn't understand the system, but even simply providing information was better than watching helplessly.

"I'll call you back."

Dean sat down on the hood of the Impala, to watch the smoke plume from his vantage point in the diner parking lot.  The world had been getting scary lately and there was so little he could do about it.  It seemed like every day there was some new horrible thing on the news- there was no pattern or reason beyond the guess that maybe Lilith was involved.  But they couldn't all be seals- they would have hit sixty five by now if that was the case, wouldn't they?  It sure as hell felt like it.

Sam had his demons hunting hers and he tried to keep it precise & quiet, yet it didn't always go down that way.  The hanged man staging & sigil carvings had started turning up in the news as early as spring 2010.  The media had called it a new craze in gangland style killings, which not-so-ironically is exactly what it became... for awhile.  Civilian gangs caught wind of the style, but didn't understand the significance.  So eventually when a group of Bloods left fifteen Crips strung up & carved in Woodlawn it caught a lot of attention.  Most notable among its audience was Lilith, who responded to the perceived insult by killed a hundred Bloods.  Within a week, rock salt was sold out in every major store in Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, & New York City.  It was a new wave of... well, hunter wasn't exactly the right terms- supernaturally aware maybe?

Dean told himself it was better this way, even if it wasn't perfect.  Let the big cities start to open their minds a little more.  With everything slowly going sideways they'd need whatever help they could get.  If only the vanguards weren't a handful of aging hunters, and career criminals.  One of Dean's hunter buddies from the Los Angeles area had said that the local cops mistook a devil's trap for Santería.  It'd be funny if it wasn't so depressing.

He leaned back against the windshield, then pulled out a joint.  After taking one puff while watching the city burn in the distance, he eyed the cigarette.  Raising it up to the horizon, the plume of smoke in the distance looked like it was coming off the joint.  The realization that he was becoming jaded washed over him, then he took another hit.  When his cell started ring, he put out the blunt on his belt buckle, then flicked it down the hill toward Indianapolis.

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't Lilith."  Sam didn't bother with any lead in.

"How do you figure that?"

"We found the human that did it."  Sam didn't sound particularly surprised, though he probably had acquired his own jadedness from Hell... almost certainly about the moral character of humans.

"It was a human?"

"Looks that way.  He's not what I'd call sane."

"No kidding.  You haven't seen the damage, it's something else.  I'm almost glad it's just some crazy person."

"Yeah well, it might not be that simple.   When you mentioned that you thought Lilith might be in on it I started a team going through our records.  In the last month we've had about 126,000 souls of confirmed killers.  When you take off all the war vets and manslaughter, we’re looking at closer to 8,000.  We’ve been going through that pool and we found…”  Dean could hear Sam flipping through some papers and murmuring as he did some quick calculations.  “there are 1,687 with a questionable mental state.”

“You just threw out like 6,500 murderers because they didn’t qualify as having a ‘questionable mental state’?  Maybe you guys need to redo your definition of insanity.”

“Yeah, well most of our hunters fall into that 6,500 category-”

“All the more reason to expand your definition of insanity.”  Sam chuckled, which made Dean smile a little in spite of everything.  “So give it to me straight, what’s the bad news?”

“32 of those, including this last guy, all used the same red flagged online forum- that’s a pretty big coincidence for one month."

"Red flagged?"

"We monitor thousands of websites for various reasons: security, recruiting, etc.  This forum was for eschatological- end of the world fanatics & survivalists.  Lots of talk about the coming apocalypse."

"You think they know about the way things're going?"

"I can't tell if they know or that they just think they know.  It's hard to get a straight answer out of these kind of people, especially when they find out there really is a Hell and they made the cut."

"Any themes?"  Dean rubbed his neck.  He wasn't even sure if this was his game, they were human after all- and not witches or anything as far as he could tell.  These guys were more for the police- granted the police couldn't do a headcount on the souls of recently deceased murders in order to spot trends.  Hell had the perk of inventorying all transgressions that burdened each soul whether the human's acts had been discovered or not.  Human intel was limited to things like physical evidence, which was only ever helpful to the extent it was found & compiled.

"They like to attack the weak & the institution.  Watch the world burn- so to speak."

"That explains why they bombed a good chunk of downtown Indianapolis."

"Two things:  It wasn't 'they', this guy was working solo as far as we can tell.  There doesn't seem to be any chain of command, just lots of goading.  Also, it wasn't a bomb, it was a natural gas pipeline explosion.  The guy worked for the utility company."

"Are you fucking serious-  So, some guy just let’s loose a couple valves and a hundred people go up in flames?”

“More than that, we’ve already got 310 fatalities and that’s just Hell’s tally.”

“And the fucking thing’s still going…”  Dean leaned his head back against the windshield and looked at the clear blue sky turning hazy with smoke.   “How’re the civies gonna handle this?”

“I’ll see if we can tip off some of our assets in strategic places, I’m not sure how much they can get done without giving up their source.  They’d probably get laughed out of whatever power they have if they said the devil told them.”

“Yeah, I’ll try to spread the word to the hunting community, but we’ll be facing a similar problem if anyone asks for sources.”

“I doubt hunters are going to just laugh off having Hell as a resource.”

* * *

 

7/23/2012

 

Ruby was picking up clothes when she entered Tom’s bedroom.  She only made it a few feet in when she hit an invisible barrier.  After a second of experimenting with moving in different directions she looked up.  There was a crudely drawn devil’s trap on the ceiling, a couple feet out of arm’s reach.

“Kaylee!”  She yelled for her two year old daughter, who peeked in the doorway.  Kaylee eyed the trap warily.  “Starlight, I need you stay where I can see you.”

“We gonna play?”

“I can’t move, so you need to play right there.”  Kaylee looked back into the living room where all her toys were.  She started to walk out of Ruby’s view.  “No, wait!  Come on, starlight.  Stay with mom.”

Ruby sighed with some small measure of relief when Kaylee entered Tom’s room and began playing with one of his action figures.  She was the only one home with Kaylee at the moment.  In theory there were a handful of people around the camp, but there was no telling where they were or how long it would take for Sam or Tom to come home.  As much as Kaylee tried to listen to her, the toddler would eventually get bored and run off to do who knows what.

“That’s my good girl.”  Ruby reassured.  “Now don’t worry, but I’m going to yell so that someone comes to help me, then we can go play.”

“You yell angry?”  Kaylee asked with a concerned expression.

“No, I just need to be loud because I can’t move.  I’m not angry.”

* * *

“You stupid fucking idiot!”  Ruby punched Dean in the face.

“What the fuck?!”  Dean cried out as he clutched his face and rolled across his bed.  His legs tangled in the sheets while he was trying to get away from her in his groggy state.  When she climbed up onto his bed to chase after him, Dean tumbled out of it onto the floor.  He started throwing shoes at her as he scrambled backward.  “Are we fighting?  Why are we fighting?”

“You’re in camp like one day and there’s a devil’s trap on Tommy’s ceiling.”  Ruby stood on the bed, towering over him with her arms crossed.  “Two guesses what happened.”

“Shit.”  Dean rubbed his throbbing cheekbone.  “He was asking me about hunting at dinner.  He wanted to know if we use magic at all, I drew out the trap and a few wards.  It wasn’t like it was a lesson or anything, I just made a quick doodle.”

“Where’s the doodle?”

“I let him keep it.”  Dean leaned his head against the wall in embarrassed defeat.

“He’s eight- what did you think he’d do?”

“I didn’t think-”

“No shit.”  Ruby took a deep breath.  “What else was on the paper?”

“Nothing dangerous.”  Dean raised his hands in forfeit.  “I’ll get it back.”

“Yeah, you will.  Put some pants on.  I’m not going back in the cabin alone until it’s cleared of traps.”  Ruby hopped off the bed, walked to the door in order to give him some privacy, then turned back to add.  “You’re my bitch for the foreseeable-  You’re gonna talk to him about this.  And if this ever happens again I’m gonna punch you in the balls so hard that Cas feels it.”

* * *

 

9/19/2012

"We're going to Santa Fe."

"What's in Santa Fe?"  Cas asked as he looked up from his paperback copy of Shards of Honor.

"Someone I really want to kill."

Dean threw the newspaper onto the motel bed next to where Cas was sitting.  The front page story was about a jewelry heist at store called Johnson’s Family Antiques, that was foiled when the burglar accidentally shot himself in the crotch.  The headline read ‘burglar lost johnson, family jewels’.  There was a large color photo of the store and a crowd looking on as the burglar was being wheeled out on a stretcher.  In the middle of the crowd in the photograph stood stood a man with a broad grin on his face.  It was the trickster that had killed Dean over a hundred times a few years earlier.  The experience had traumatized Sam and Dean wanted some payback.

Dean called Sam's direct line.  The phone clicked & hissed for a moment, indicating to Dean that the call was being rerouted to Hell.  The line would take a few seconds to adjust for the time difference, but he imagined Sam always got the worst side of the deal.  He probably had to wait an extra several minutes between Dean's sentences to have the speech converted up x120 speed.  Fuck, Sammy probably treated every interdimensional phone call as playing pen pals.

"Hey Ishmael, get your ass to Santa Fe.  I found Moby Dickhead."  Dean offered once the line became clear.

"Dean, what the hell are you talking about?"  

"The trickster, he's in Santa Fe.  He got photographed, I spotted him in the newspaper."

"It's a trap."  Sam's tone was blunt.  In the background Dean could hear some shuffling of papers.  Sam usually had a little negativity during or shortly after working, so Dean didn't take the objection as a full on rejection.

"There's been all sorts of weird stuff going on in that area and this is the first spotting.  He could've just slipped up.  The guy makes mistakes."

"We're being hunted by angels, demons, hunters- you really think that there's going to be something lining up for us like this that's not a trap?"

"He's a trickster.  That's polytheistic pagan territory.  He's not some angel or demon or hunter.  Why would he work with them?"  Sam didn't have a good answer, so he just listened.  "Come on, it'll be fun.  You're like a wizard, we've got Cas- hell, you can even bring one of those Knights if Crowley won't let you out to play without a chaperone."

"This is a bad idea."

"That's not a no."  Dean said as a little smile started forming on his face.

"You're set on doing this, aren't you?"

"100%"

"Put me on speakerphone."  Sam waited.  Dean waved over Cas, then switched the output to the speaker.  "I'm bringing Tora.  We find him, kill him, then we're gone.  Cas, if things go wrong we'll hop around and meet back at camp.  Okay?"

"Do you really have to bring Tora?  Can't you bring the one that doesn't talk?"  Dean's chipper mood dimmed slightly at the idea of spending time with Tora.  She didn't like him- she didn't seem to like anyone other than Sam and even that seemed like a stretch.

"She's the best I've got at dealing with illusions & magic.  I'll ask her not to talk as much around you if you want."  Sam offered.

"Just teach her English at some point, teach all of your Knights English.  As is they're a pain in the ass to be around."

"I'm going to need some time to wrap things up down here, then I'll be ready..."  Dean could hear Sam assessing some small mountain of work.  "maybe ten minutes your time.  Where do you want to meet?"

"There's an IHOP at the corner of Richards & Certillos-"  Sam chuckled at Dean's suggestion.

"We're seriously going to have our pre-hunt tactical meeting in a pancake house?"

"You caught him eating pancakes once before, maybe we'll get lucky."  Dean grinned at his quick justification.

"Dean has also been wanting pancakes for two days."  Cas added, deflating Dean slightly.  He threw Cas a look of mock betrayal, which caused Cas to shrug.

"That doesn't make it any less of a good idea."  Dean defended.

"See you guys in ten."

* * *

Dean & Cas left their belongings at their Cincinnati motel room except for three angel blades.  Cas teleported them to an alley about a block from the Santa Fe pancake house.  After grabbing a booth, Dean recapped his previous encounters with the trickster for Cas.

He wasn't particularly concerned with the trickster spotting them.  The trickster's MO was consistent with not being able to pass up the easy target of Dean or Sam.  Either intentionally or accidentally one of them would probably catch his attention, so it might as while be in the form of bait.  When it came down to it, the fight would probably be telegraphed in advance.  The card up their sleeve though was collectively being much more powerful than the last time the trickster saw them.

After a few minutes, Sam walked in followed by a woman that appeared to be in her mid-twenties and of Native American descent.  Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail.  She wore hot pink & yellow polka dot stockings under cutoff jeans shorts, and a turquoise The Go! Team hoodie.  Her exterior was entirely carefree, but by the way she was casing the restaurant Dean knew it was Tora.

"Real subtle.  Of all the women in town, she had to grab a powerpuff girl."  Dean commented, but Sam shrugged as he slid into the booth.

"Whatever, I don't tell her how to do her job."  Sam said.  Tora sat down next to Sam in the booth, separating him from the aisle.

"Yeah, you do.  You're her boss."  Dean gestured at Tora, earning him a glare from her.

"I tell her what to do, I don't care how it gets done.  If she thinks that body will work well, that's up to her."

"It's got a soul in it, doesn't it?"  Sam pursed his lips slightly at Dean's question and gave a small helpless shrug.

"Soulless bodies in decent shape are hard to find.  If you want help on short notice, this is what we have to deal with.  She knows to go easy on it."

A waiter stopped by their table just long enough to drop off menus for the new arrivals.  Sam picked up one of the menus and tapped it on the table a few times.

"Are we actually getting food?"  He asked before opening the menu.  "Not that I'm complaining- I just wasn't expecting to eat so soon."

"Never hunt on an empty stomach."  Dean smiled.  "Unless it's ghouls- maybe skip lunch then."

"Is she going to eat too?" Asked Cas.  He had contemplated skipping his custom of eating with others while at a restaurant, but thought it might seem odd so close to breakfast time while at a pancake house.  Though, he didn't know if Tora also refraining from eating would make him less or more conspicuous.

Tora was diligently looking around the restaurant and hadn't touched the menu, not that it would've done her much good beyond the few pictures.  Sam leaned closer to her and whispered some Abyssal to her.  He was hoping to spare Dean the uncomfortable feeling the language produced in humans, but Dean still shuddered slightly.  She thought for a moment, then nodded.  Her hand waved at the menu with indifference.

"Yeah, she'll eat, but she doesn't care what.  She hasn't been topside for awhile, so anything'll probably be a treat."  Dean chuckled at Sam's answer.  When he saw everyone looking at him confused about what was funny, he smiled.

"Sorry, just the idea of a Knight of Hell getting a treat.  I pictured a cartoon demon with an oversized lollypop."

Sam & Cas smiled, but didn't seem as amused as Dean would've liked.  Unseen under the table, Cas patted Dean's knee reassuringly.  Tora looked at Dean suspiciously, but otherwise didn't react.

"Speaking of sweets, any knocked over candy shops or other leads?"  Sam asked.

"Not yet, but there's a cupcake baking competition downtown starting in an hour."  Dean said with an innocent grin, but Sam frowned back at him.

"Trap, I'm calling it right now.  Trap."  

"Yeah, but it's one of his traps.  They're like stories you'll tell the kids some day."

"You getting killed in front of me like 200 times was fucking hilarious."  There was a little more moodiness in Sam’s voice than Dean had expected.

"I know you're still pissed at the guy, that's why we're here..."  Dean's smile faded in concern. "You need to loosen up.  Is... work getting to you?"

Sam sighed, then leaned back in the booth slightly.  He chewed his lip a little while trying to decide how much to share.  Dean rarely asked him about 'work' because it was something they could almost never see eye to eye on.  Yet Dean was sympathetic to his struggle, even if Sam seemed to be bearing it fairly well most days.  So on the unusual day when Sam was clearly agitated, Dean would make the goodwill gesture of at least asking.

"Something's wrong with our inventory... or worse- the numbers are right.  You'd think that they closed the pearly gates with the uptick we've been seeing lately."  Sam rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to relieve some stress.  "I mean like all dogs aren't going to heaven."

"Heaven never accepted canines."  Cas said in confusion.

"It's a movie reference, babe."  Dean said as he waved his menu impatiently trying to signal their waiter.

"Do canines go to Hell?"  Cas asked Sam in legitimate curiosity.

"Um... No?  We don't really have animals."  Sam furrowed his brow, then leaned over and whispered to Tora again.  The waiter approached their table, but looked faint as soon as he was in the area of effect of the Hellish tongue, and hurried away without stopping to get their order.  Dean watched the waiter retreat as Tora whispered something back to Sam.  "We've got hounds & imps, but we think they're both native.  What?"

Dean bounced his knee in annoyance, then collected all the menus.

"Alright, I'm gonna go chase down the waiter and put in our order because this wait is un-fucking-bearable.  Cas, you still want french toast?"

"I think so."

"Pancake is in the name of the restaurant, throwing that out there."  Dean offered while resisting the mild exasperation he was experiencing.

"I appreciate that, but I'm curious what makes the toast french."

"I don't know if french toast is actually-"  Sam started, but Dean cut him off.

"Look it up on your phone while I'm ordering.  Let me guess," Dean put two fingers to his forehead feigning a psychic reading.  "egg white garden omelette."

"And a cup of coffee."  Sam added a little peeved at being so predictable.

"Everyone's getting coffee- I don't care if half of us don't sleep, caffeine all around.  As for Tora, any idea what I should order for her to eat?"

"Anything."  Dean nodded at Sam’s answer, then pursued their waiter.  Sam smiled at Cas.  "He's pretty excited about killing the trickster, isn't he?"

"The way everything has been going lately, Dean needs an old fashioned hunt.  It feels like a third of our cases in the last few months were human- and those are just the ones we initially mistook for supernatural creatures."

"I heard about the bombing at the World Series and the subway shootings along the east coast.  Things are getting bad up here, aren't they?"

Cas glanced nervously at Dean, who was still talking with the waiter across the restaurant.

"This escalation, is it your people?"

"No, not on that kind of scale.  We're still going through reconstruction in the Pits.  There's a token level of disruption topside, to help us maintain our presence, but we just don't have the manpower to spare on anything more than that right now."

"Do you think they're Lilith's people?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure where she'd get the extra manpower either.  She's also pretty immobilized by our grappling."  Sam leaned forward and lowered his voice.  "Have you heard anything from your contacts in Heaven?  We're trying to keep up the show and our defenses are mostly intact, but I'm not sure we could take a hard hit right now.  If you catch wind of anything..."

"Right now I believe that a direct assault on Hell is not a priority of Heaven, but I will let you know if I hear anything."

"Thanks Cas."

* * *

 Unsurprisingly there was a security checkpoint at the entrance to the convention center.  Rather than pull some sleight of hand getting their weapons through, they opted to just teleport inside.  Despite the rigorous check getting inside, there were still a considerable number of security guards patrolling for a baking competition.  Though Dean supposed that nowadays a little extra security at large gathering seemed like a fair policy decision.  

Dean put his hands in his jacket pockets and held them closer to his torso until they could find a quiet place to prepare.  They turned into an alcove that contained a bank of dusty pay phones.  He opened his jacket and pulled out one of the two angel blades he wore in a custom shoulder holster.

"You sure the angel blades will work on a trickster?"  Asked Sam.

"They've worked on everything else and they're a lot easier to hide than those big spikes."  Dean said then dangled the spare blade in front of Tora.  "Now remember: play nice."

She took the blade, twirled it a few times, then looked at Sam.  One corner of his mouth turned downward and he shook his head at her.  She pointed at Dean, then stabbed the wall next to her without taking her gaze off him.  The tip of her blade was embedded directly between the eyes of a man on a flyer.

"Just because she can't kill you doesn't mean you should make her want to."  Warned Cas.

"Come on.  She's kinda a bitch and you know it."  Said Dean.

"You're kinda a jerk."  Countered Sam.  Dean looked to Cas for back up, but the angel was intently without comment.  "Anyway, the trickster's somewhere around here, so the last thing you need to be doing is setting yourself up for some ironic justice."

"Fine."  Dean conceded, then got down to business.  "If we see anything suspicious, we try to casually separate it from the civilians before we start poking it with pointy sticks.  The last thing we need is for a dozen mall cops to be taken out in a blaze of glory because our cover's blown and Tora ends up stab happpy."

"She knows to not use lethal force on civilians.  Anyway, it's not like we're going to get the drop on this guy, so we better be ready for it to go sideways."  Sam raked his fingers through his hair, then spoke to the ceiling.  "Hey trickster, if you're watching us can you point out that I get a 'told you so' when you eventually screw us over."

"Cute."  Dean muttered.

"Oh, you'll see."

* * *

 They walked through the aisles of the exhibition hall looking for anything out of the ordinary.  Sam, Dean, & Cas looked for bizarre situations, though it was made difficult by the absurd surroundings.  There were stages with demonstrations, dozens of competitors' stations, advertising stands, mascots, & overly enthusiastic baking fans.  The entire setting was cheerful chaos.

While the guys were looking for the trickster, Tora was only focused on possible threats.  When they reached an area that contained several work stations with large chef knives, she placed a hand on Sam's arm.  He stopped to look at her, but Dean kept walking.  Once Dean was positioned to be walking into danger first, she shook her head and waved at Sam to dismiss his attention.

Despite the potential for danger, Dean was so delighted by the outing that he had a spring in his step.  He was on a hunt with both Cas & Sam, and he got to eat cupcakes while at it.  If he ever got snagged by a djinn again, he was pretty sure his wish would be some variation on that day.  

After popping a miniature red velvet cupcake in his mouth, he turned around to see that Cas & Sam were gone.  Tora was standing about ten feet behind him frantically looking around.  She rush forward to Dean and said something in Abyssal.  He cringed at her words, but she mercifully stopped talking.  In a surprisingly desperate attempt at communicating she said something in what sounded like Japanese.

"I don't understand you."  He said, but she just shook her head at his indecipherable statement.  She cursed, looked around, cursed again, then turned her eyes black.  Dean thought of the hall full of civilians & potential witnesses.

He grabbed her upper left arm from behind and immediately knew it was a mistake. She spun around.  For a second he was worried that she had mistaken him for an attacker and would stab him.  But he quickly realized she was just angry at him when he saw it was the butt of the angel blade coming at his face.  He threw up his hands in forfeit and the slim hope of blocking the hit, but she somehow stopped herself just short of making contact.  She was scowling so hard that he could see one of her eyelids twitching.  He pointed at her eyes, then the nearby civilians.

"You can't go walking around here with your eyes black."  He whispered to her even though she couldn't tell what he was saying.  She narrowed her eyes in annoyance, then disappeared.  

Dean imagined her teleporting back to Hell to get reinforcements.  That was just what he needed on a stealthy little hunt, the armies of Hell bearing down on a county league baking competition looking for their missing King- not that it was stealthy anymore.  The trickster knew they were there and he had Cas & Sam... maybe letting a hundred demons turn the place insideout wasn't the worst idea.  

But just as Dean was mentally preparing himself for the demonic horde, he bumped into something that he couldn't see.  He took a hard jab to the stomach that knocked the wind out of him followed by a huff.  Tora had just turned herself invisible.  Sam had said she was the illusion expert, but Dean had assumed the expertise was more academic.

The merits of her new, subtle approach were dampened though when Dean realized that he'd completely lost track of her.  He was alone in the trickster's trap and he was arguably the least capable at fighting him.  Unfortunately, with no one left to consult, Dean could only think to play along and continue the hunt.  Eventually the trickster would bring him into the game in a more active way.

He turned a corner and began walking down a corridor of stalls.  After a few minutes he realized that with every step he took, the exhibition hall became quieter.  When he looked around more diligently he noticed that there were fewer and fewer civilians nearby.  Soon he couldn’t see another person at all.  An unnerving silence filled the hall and he readied himself for the shit to hit the fan.  

The faint sound of ticking began to emanate from one of the stages.  Even in spite of the otherwise silence, it seemed to spread unnaturally through the hall.  His instincts told him to head away from the ominous sound, but he needed to find Cas & Sam.  With his angel blade at the ready, he followed the ticking.  It came from a stage that was entirely bare except for a small table with an old fashioned wind up kitchen timer.  

He approached the timer cautiously, then saw that it only had two seconds on it.  As far as he could tell there wasn't any bomb attached to the timer, but it still made his heart skip a beat.  He wasn't sure whether he wanted to dive for cover or break the damn thing.  A quick look around gave no clues as to what he was supposed to do.  Turning back to the timer, it struck zero and buzzed.

Dean cringed as he waited for whatever was supposed to happen, but nothing came.  With an attempt at a calming breath, he turned to see the trickster standing on the far end of the stage from him.

"No dynamite or cream pies? No joke? No lesson to be learned?"  Dean asked while trembling slightly from adrenaline & anger.

"You want a lesson.  How about ‘Don't go walking into traps.’?"  The trickster rolled his eyes at Dean, then snapped his fingers.  

The table disappeared, replaced by Sam & Cas.  Sam was laying unconscious on the floor, but otherwise looked fine.  Beside him sat a bound & gagged Cas, who struggled against his bonds.  Dean took in the fact that Cas was unable to teleport out of his bindings, something that he'd never seen before.  The subtle display of power made Dean's stomach drop, but he tried not to show the worry on his face.

"Well, I'm glad you're all finally here, we need to have a little talk."  The trickster’s tone was slightly annoyed, but oddly soft…  He wasn’t being his normal snarky self and that was more than a little unnerving.

"I don't have anything to say to you."  Dean said as he gripped his angel blade.  The trickster held up his hands to symbolize non-hostility, then gestured to Sam.

"Listen, I'm sorry I had to knock out sleeping beauty, but I couldn't risk him shooting first."

"And why'd you take Cas?"

"Mixed bag, partially to take the angel out of the equation and partially to see what you'd do with just the demon.  I’m not gonna lie.  I thought about having some fun with you, maybe taking off that anti-possession ink of yours- but I promised myself I wouldn't mess with you guys too much, even the Knight...  Speaking of which..."  The trickster looked around the room for a moment, then shrugged.  "Anyway, I'm serious when I say that we need to talk.  No tricks, just information."

"Bullshit."

"I don’t want to be in this situation any more than you do, but I need your help- and you need mine even if you don’t realize it yet."  The trickster turned his head toward a sound that Dean didn't catch.  Instantaneously, the trickster was several feet to the right of where he'd been standing and Tora was made visible.  She had been in mid-jump, with her blade less than a foot from the trickster had been standing.  As soon as she landed, the trickster snapped his fingers and a devil's trap appeared on the floor around her.  “I could kill you or turn you all into chinchillas, but I’m not going to.  Just give me a few minutes and if you still want to take a shot at me- well, I’ll be gone before you could even try, but I won’t even whammy you on my way out the door.”

"I’m listening."  Dean said after looking at his three helpless companions.  He eyed the trickster as he knelt down next to Cas. When he saw that the trickster wasn’t trying to stop him, he began cutting Cas free of his bindings.  

"Let’s get Gulliver up first.  Sam needs to hear this too."  

* * *

 It was going to take a minute for Sam to fully recover from being knocked out.  The trickster refused to snap him right back to wide awake and insisted that Dean & Cas keep Sam from launching into a fight before he was completely released from the stupor.  While Sam was struggling to get himself upright, Cas looked between Dean, who was visibly concerned, and the handicapped Sam.  Cas glared at the trickster in relative helpless frustration, but in return the trickster beamed with a strangely proud smile.  

"Castiel, you really grew up."  Said the trickster.

"Do I know you?"  Cas was wary, but his head titled subtly showing his curiosity.

"Right- you wouldn't recognize me like this.”  The trickster seemed almost disappointed at Cas’ lack of recognition.  “I'll give you three hints:  I'm older than you.  I'm supposed to be dead.  And I play a mean horn."

"Gabriel?"  All the skepticism & anger in Cas’ expression faded into shocked confusion.

"Good to see you little brother."

"Brother?"  At the word, Dean looked up from helping Sam, who was barely sitting.  He had trouble processing anything more than the fact that the trickster was an angel.  Instinctively, Dean moved to be between Cas and the possible threat.

"Relax Deano, I'm not here to hurt anyone- least of all Castiel, I actually like him."

"Cas, who is this guy?"

"He's Gabriel, the Archangel."  Cas stepped around Dean, toward his brother.  "But you died in the war?"

"Less died, more fled.  It was chaos back then- you remember.  I just needed to get away and, well..."  The Archangel's smile turned a bit sad.  "You know how it is- you can't go back either, even if they'd take you back.  Freedom & emotions... all the fun bits."

"So, you're a fallen Archangel?"  Sam asked as he gingerly tried to stand up.  "What do you want with us?"

"I want you two idiots to not get caught.  Here's your reminder that you get an 'I told you so'."  Gabriel said to Sam.  "That whole lesson about not walking into traps, I mean it.  I know you're chasing payback or a thrill or something- you know what's a safer thrill?  Cocaine.”

Gabriel looked over at Tora, who had been standing perfectly still with her eyes shut since being trapped.  The Archangel watched as the trap flickered, then disappeared.  He raised his hand to snap his fingers, but hesitated when she didn’t attack him right away.  She instead looked to Sam, who signaled for her to wait.  Gabriel lowered his hand, then turned his attention back to the conversation.

"I don’t get it, why do you care about us?"  Asked Dean.

"As is, Michael & Lucifer are on lockdown, but if you two get nabbed it could be a game changer."  Answered Gabriel.

"I get that Sam might be involved with Lucifer’s last seal, but how are we keeping Michael on lockdown?"

"That whole last seal mess aside, who do you think Michael & Luci’s vessels are?"

"The grace in you both..."  Cas was too busy putting the pieces together to finish his sentence.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!  May I present Dean Winchester, the last surviving vessel of the Archangel Michael, Commander of the Heavenly Host, The Sword of Heaven, et cetera."  Gabriel gestured toward Dean as if he was showing off an item on a late night infomercial.  Then he turned to Sam.  "And Sam Winchester, one of... two vessels of the Archangel Lucifer, Master of the Abyss, The First Light, et cetera.  You get the gist."

Dean & Sam exchanged looks of concern.  For over a year, they had been aware that they were both vessels, but they'd all assumed that they shared the same angel's grace... The idea that it was the grace of two different angels and the angels were actually Archangels was huge news that they weren’t sure how to process.

"This doesn't make sense."  Cas objected to the unpleasant suggestion.  "Sam can't be Lucifer's vessel.  That entire bloodline was killed after the war.  Lucifer's grace didn't survive his imprisonment."

"Well, he made some more.  It seems about thirty years ago, one of Luci's groupies managed to have a chat with him.  After that, he went around finding kids with the right grace and tried to corrupt it."

"Azazel?"  Sam asked weakly.

"I think that was the name."

"What do you mean 'right grace'?"

"He needed the grace of another Archangel- the vessel had to be strong enough to survive the corruption, a lesser vessel wouldn't do... The whole process killed ten of my vessels,"  Gabriel looked a little sad at the thought.  "eight of Raphael's, and four of Michael's- very distant relatives of yours.  Sam here was the only survivor, he’s got the fully augmented grace.  Luci has a bloodline again."

"So, if Lucifer gets out of his cage he'll try to possess me?"  

"You or your kid, with your consent of course."  Sam looked like it was taking all his conviction not to teleport home to check on Kaylee, but he managed to conceal his fear after a moment.

"And if there's gonna be a showdown, Michael'll be wearing me?"  Dean asked, but he already knew the bleak answer.  It was the worst thing he could think of, so of course it'd be true.

"Now you're getting it."  Gabriel clapped his hands together, then pointed to Sam & Dean. "And you guys can't let that happen.  If both of you turn meat puppets, the world's gonna burn.  So, again- say it with me: Don't get caught."

Cas had easily understood the implications of Sam & Dean consenting to being possessed, so he had directed his thoughts to the less obvious.  At the pause in the conversation, he turned to Sam with an answer to a question that had been troubling both of them for almost three years.

"If you're Lucifer's vessel, then that would explain your light weapon.  Vessels are weak reflections of their angel's virtue.  Normally that doesn't manifest, but Archangel's vessels are considerably more powerful than lesser vessels.  It could result in your unusually powerful light weapon.  Lucifer was a being of immense power that manipulated light.  He was able to smite lesser angels without any effort."

"Yeah, wielding The First Light sounds dramatic enough."  Added Gabriel.  "I didn't get to see many of Luci's vessels before they got wiped out, but throwing around the light rings a bell."

"What about Dean?"  Cas asked as he glanced at the hunter.

"What about me?"  Dean stepped back a little defensively.

"You also have an echo of Archangel mojo- Michael's mojo."  Gabriel explained.  "Traditionally, The Sword of Heaven can bless their weapons.  I know, really exciting, but that’s what you get for having the most boring Archangel."

"Bless weapons?"  Dean raised an eyebrow.  He was barely onboard with the whole angels & Heaven thing, but the idea of getting dealt an ability that was straight out of a Dungeons & Dragons manual made him uncomfortable.  Powers & interplanar stuff was Cas & Sam’s thing, he was the boots on the Earth kinda guy.

"If you do it right, any weapon you use could be as lethal as an angel blade."  Gabriel clarified.

"I could use a gun on an angel?"  Dean asked with quickly growing enthusiasm.

"If you bless it first."

"How do I do that?"

"How should I know?"  Gabriel shrugged.   "You aren't one of mine."

“Well great, let me call up Michael and ask him how to kill his cronies.”

“We might be able to find some information on it.  Unlike Lucifer, Michael has a long history of vessels, it’s possible we could find one-”

"Oh, that reminds me."  Gabriel snapped his fingers causing Dean, Cas, & Sam to stagger in pain.  Tora didn't wait for Sam to give the okay.  She lunged at Gabriel, but he disappeared and was replaced by a six foot tall plush toy angel.  She didn't resist her momentum, but instead swung her blade upward cutting the toy from crotch to top of the head.  She rolled as she landed, then sprang up ready to take another swing before the two halves of the toy hit the ground.

"Is she trained to go straight for the goods on guys?"  Gabriel asked from behind Sam.  Her eyes turned black and she disappeared. Gabriel blinked away just before she reappeared, swinging through the space he'd just occupied.  A devil's trap appeared on the ground around her, but nearly instantly flickered out like the last one.

"Dammit- call her off, Sam.  I was helping you guys."  Said the Archangel, but he was no where to be seen.  Tora blinked to a new location and took another swing, which stopped part way through the stroke with the sound of metal on metal.  Then she looked around the room, seemingly searching for him again.  "I don't want to hurt her."

By that time the pain in Dean, Cas, & Sam's chests had dissipated, allowing them to stand up straight again.  Sam called to her, which immediately stopped her frenzy.  He gestured for her to calm down.  She tucked her angel blade back into her hoodie, then moved to stand at attention next to Sam.

"What the fuck did you do to us?"  Asked Dean as he rubbed his ribs.

"I engraved a ward against angelic scrying on your ribs.  Now you don't need those annoying hex bags."  Gabriel said as he reappeared before them.  "I took the liberty of amending the engraving a bit to let Castiel & me locate you.  Now I don't have to spend a few months rolling out the red carpet next time."

"Next time?"

"Yeah, you chuckleheads are too important to leave alone.  I'll be checking in on you every once in awhile."  Gabriel moved to snap his fingers, but stopped when he saw that Cas had opened his mouth to speak.

"Thank you, for helping us."

"I'm not just doing this for you...  Like I said, I have a good thing going on here.  I have friends- or at least people who don't want to kill me, and a lady- actually, I'm not entirely sure she's a lady..."  Dean & Sam exchanged glances.  "Anyway, the last war... Our family was killing itself.  I don't want to see that again... if possible."

* * *

10/01/2012

"Tom, if you want to go into town you better get your ass out of bed."  Ruby yelled through the bedroom door.  The wooden door had dozens of wards drawn onto it in marker, some of which had been painted over in a hue that didn't quite match the original shade of seafoam green.  A paper sign had been taped to the door that read 'Keep out.  I'm being awesome.'

"If he's like this now, I can't imagine how it's gonna be when he's a teenager."

Across the large open room that made up a combination kitchen, dining room, and living room, Dean & Cas sat at the dining table watching Kaylee.  Dean was eating some oatmeal with a side of bacon, while Cas sat in the chair next to him entertaining Kaylee.

"Go easy on him.  Sleeping in is a rite of passage for young people."  Dean said as he topped off his own cup of coffee, then filled a mug for Cas, passing it to him after adding a little cream.

"I didn't sleep in when I was his age."  Ruby complained, still standing by the bedroom door.

"But you had a fucked up childhood."

"Look who's talking... but fair point."  Ruby chewed her lip and waved a hand dismissing some expectation. "These kids are gonna be so fucked up."

"You both agreed to avoid profanity around the children."  Said Cas as he bounced Kaylee on his knee.  He didn't bother trying to cover her ears, that would've been an eternal struggle.

"Oh no, she might get sent home from preschool."  Ruby rolled her eyes and mimed concern.  "First priority is stopping her from flashing eyes because she thinks it's funny.  Then we can worry about her wide breadth of vocabulary."

Ruby knocked on the bedroom door again, provoking a groggy shout indicating some level of consciousness.  After sighing, she shrugged and returned to her seat at the table.  She ate a few bites of her extra crispy hash browns with a liberal squirt of ketchup, then cut up pieces of a banana which she passed over to Cas.  Cas helped Kaylee eat the banana, then let her down when she was done.

Ruby eyed the clock, then walked back over to the bedroom door.

"Tom, you've got ten more minutes before I send Dean in after you?"

"Seriously, still?  How much longer am I gonna be on bedroom duty?"  Dean leaned back in his chair.

"I'm thinking at least two more visits."

"It was one devil's trap.  Anyway, he's just gonna figure out something to pull on me.  If I get hexed trying to drag him out of bed-"

The bedroom door opened.  Tom walked out in a sleepy haze.  He wore blue flannel pajama pants, an oversized Violent Femmes t-shirt, & no socks.  His hair was just over four inches long and slightly flattened on the right side.  He carried a bundle of clothing under one arm, waved using the other without looking, then turned straight into the bathroom.

"I know Sam's cool with long hair, but I just don't get it."  Dean self-consciously ran his fingers over his hair, trying to smooth down some of its poofiness.  "I can barely stand letting my hair get this long."

"You look good with your hair like that."  Ruby offered, earning a small grin of appreciation from Dean.

"Maybe Tom's experimenting with rebelling?"  Suggested Cas.

"If he was actually rebelling I think he'd take up accounting as a hobby."  Ruby countered.  "He's just figuring himself out."

"Yeah, well don't expect anything to stick for awhile.  He's turning nine, you've got at least ten more years of hormones and all the crazy that comes with it."  Dean warned as he recalled Sam & his own teenage years.

"If he's anything like you, he's got, what twenty five more years?  You still hormonal & crazy, old man?"  Ruby teased.

"Yeah, I'm the old one, but somehow I'm always the one climbing the trees after him."  Dean threw Ruby a friendly glare.

"You're a hunter.  You've got to stay in peak physical condition or something like that."  Ruby theorized while taking another bite of food.  She looked at Cas, who nodded in agreement with her.

On cue, Kaylee tagged Dean and ran around the living room to hide behind an armchair.  He sighed at the prospect of physical effort before he'd even finished breakfast, then gave chase.  He intentionally let her get away from him a few times, but eventually grabbed her and began tickling her stomach.

"You're actually looking surprisingly spry."  Ruby commented.

"He's in excellent physical condition."  Added Cas.

"You would say that."  Ruby commented through a mouth full of hash browns.

Dean scooped up Kaylee with one arm and held her at waist height.  Her legs dangled in the direction he was facing and her upper body faced behind him.  She giggled & squealed about being the wrong way.

"I'll have you know that, apart from munchkin here, I'm the youngest one in the room."  Dean said smugly.

"I've spotted a grey hair or two on you." Ruby jabbed.  Dean flipped off Ruby out of Kaylee's view.

"Yeah, well.  You two are cheating.  Some of us actually have to age."

Sam knocked and then came in the front door.  It was an unnecessary gesture since he had just teleported straight from Hell and could choose to appear almost anywhere that wasn't warded against him.  Yet he tried to give others their personal space and fair warning.

Kaylee started flailing her arms & legs excitedly trying to escape from Dean's arm.  Dean spun around a few times before putting her down, causing her to giggle and stumble around dizzily for a moment.  She eventually staggered her way to Sam, who wrapped her in a massive hug.  He tossed her in the air a few times, then took a seat at the table with her still hanging from his neck.

"Is Tom good to go?" Sam asked while stealing a bite of hash browns from Ruby's plate.

"He had a late start."  Ruby said, then glanced at the bathroom door.  "He'll probably be out of the bathroom soon."

"Does he still want to go into town?"

"Yep, he wants some new clothes and to hang out with 'the guys'.  You might as well try to do something fun while you're at it."  Ruby had been disappointed that Tom's expectations for a birthday involved buying new pants and hanging out with people he saw regularly.

"We'll figure something out."  Dean assured.

"Thanks for making it on such short notice."  Sam smiled at Dean & Cas.

"It's not a problem.  We just finished a hunt when you called and it was barely a day's drive."  Said Cas.

"We've done like five hunts in a row.  I'm glad to be home for a while."  Dean added with a smile.  "I've become soft- motel beds aren't the same."

"They're much harder and... of questionable sanitary conditions."  Cas frowned.

* * *

 Once Tom was ready to go, Dean & Sam played rock-paper-scissors over who got to drive the Impala into town.  Sam won, Tom took shotgun, and Dean & Cas piled in the backseat.  Sam forfeited the driver's right to pick the music to Tom, who decided to start with The Clash.  It was about a three hour drive to Saskatoon, offering plenty of time for stories and joking around.

"You're exaggerating."  Objected Cas.

"I'm taking creative license.”  Dean admitted with a little shrug.  “You can't expect me to tell them about the rugaru hunt without giving a little texture."

"Maybe leave out some of the texture."  Sam asked nodding toward Tom.

"I'm not a little kid, Sam.  It's not gonna scare me." Tom said indignantly.

"I'm not worried that it'll scare you, I'm worried that next birthday you'll be asking to tag along with Dean & Cas on a hunt."  Tom looked thoughtful for a moment before being shut down.  "No way."

Tom slouched slightly in defeat, then began absentmindedly chewing on one of the pull strings of his plum hoodie.

"Yeah, you have to be able to drive before you can go on hunts."  Added Dean, but Tom excitedly turned around to face Dean.

"So... you're saying that you'll teach me to drive next year?"  Tom grinned.

"Sam, stop letting him hang out with your Crossroads buddies."

They stopped at a burger shop in downtown before going shopping.  Dean & Tom both got bacon cheeseburgers and milk shakes.  Sam ordered a veggie burger and an iced tea.  Cas ordered the smallest, plainest burger on the menu and water.  He didn't need to eat and some days it was an unpleasantly intense experience, but he knew it was important both as a way of pretending to be human and also from a social aspect.  When the food came, Cas wordlessly transferred his pickle spear and french fries to Dean's plate, earning a smile from Dean in return.

"Get a room."  Sam joked.

"I thought we would be back at the camp before night?"  Cas asked.

"It was a joke, Cas."  Dean put a hand on the angel's shoulder.  "I'll explain it to you later."

Cas nodded and gingerly began eating his burger.

"These f’ies ar’ amazing!”  Dean held up a few french fries to emphasize the point, but talking with his mouth partially full had also gotten the job done.  “You should take Ruby here.  Cas & I'll watch the kids-"

"I'm not a kid."  Tom reminded as he sat up a little straighter in the booth.

"We'll watch the kid and the adult that doesn't need to shave yet."

"Thanks, but you might not have to.”  Commented Sam.  “Bobby should be back from Jody’s in a few days and he's long overdue for some domestic duty."

"He's supposed to take me fishing & shooting.  You could come too."  Tom offered hopefully.

"Did he say what kind of gun he'd be starting you on?"  Sam looked a little nervous, but knew better than to question the wisdom of Bobby.

"Shotgun."  Tom grinned broadly at the idea of utterly destroying targets.  Sam & Dean both took the weapon choice as more of a defensive tool that could be equipped with salt shells rather than something as explicitly lethal as a pistol.

After getting to know a few hunters, Tom had learned that they weren't the boogeymen he'd imagined as a child.  In the last year, Tom had started emulating Dean a bit more, seeking to be a bit tougher.  Tom still idolized Sam, but Dean shared stories of dramatic battles and Sam rarely shared stories from his 'work'.  

Recently, Sam had been a bit concerned that Tom would want to be a hunter, but it was a little hard to imagine with the relatively intense magical training that he was receiving from Ruby.  He was naturally gifted with the craft, and there was an unspoken expectation among other witches and Maji that Ruby's apprentice would someday lead a coven.  Sam & Ruby both made Tom's safety and happiness a top priority, expectations be damned... though they had to admit that nowadays leading a coven was probably safer than hunting.

* * *

 After lunch they went to a department store to satisfy Tom's request for some more clothes.  He was the oldest boy in the coven, which meant that he more or less didn't get any hand me downs.  It was true that he occasionally borrowed shirts from Ruby, but that wasn’t an ideal source for a wardrobe.

Sam & Ruby generally let him do anything with his appearance that he wanted.  A few months earlier he'd grown his hair out until his afro was completely unwieldy.  Sam had been the one to explain the joy of hair ties, clips, & headbands.  Since then, the hair length may have reduced, but Tom usually wore some bright hair accessory, several of which he borrowed from the girls in the coven.  No one made fun of his accessories, but on the unusual instance when the boy was in public it earned a few glances.  On this outing he wore a teal paisley headband complete with a small white bow accent.

Tom was holding a handful of new purple flower covered hair ties while Sam & Dean helped him look for shirts big enough that he wouldn't immediately outgrow them.  Dean kept suggesting muted colors, rock band t-shirts, and plain designs.  Sam instead pulled out brighter colors & plaids.  Cas just watched the show.

Dean & Cas decided to go look for a pair of boots to serve better in the wilderness than Cas' dress shoes while Sam paid for Tom’s clothes.  After gathering up an arm's worth of clothing, Sam made his way to find a register, while Tom tagged along.  As the pile started to get rung up, Tom became distracted by a display of tennis shoes in a variety of neon colors that was across the department.  He went to go take a closer peek in the hopes of further cashing in on his birthday fortune.

There was a loud sound like a crack from outside the store, followed by screaming and several small explosions.  The cashier dove behind the counter, but Sam barely took cover at all- He spun around looking for Tom, but he wasn't in view.  He ducked down to see if Tom had taken cover below any of the clothing racks, but the boy wasn't there.  He wanted to sense him, but Tom wasn't any bit demon.  Sam started yelling for him.

There was another explosion, which was close enough to knock out a nearby display window.  Sam held up his hand telekinetically stopping the glass shards before they hit him.  He hopped onto the checkout counter to get a better view, then saw him.  Tom was huddled, taking cover about sixty feet away behind a metal bench.  The screaming outside got louder for a second before the sound of gunshots started.  Sam sprinted toward Tom, pushing all obstacles out of his way.  He telekinetically threw a table in front of the window closest to Tom, then slid down to him.

"Dad!"  Tom yelled and grabbed onto Sam, who scooped him up and sprinted with him toward the back of the store.  Another small explosion rattled the front of the store, and Sam shielded them from a few pieces of debris.

About halfway through the store, Dean & Cas rounded a corner into view.  Dean's shoulder was bleeding, but he refused to slow down long enough for Cas to heal the cut.

"Are you guys alright?"  Asked Dean as they ran through the employees only area looking for an exit out the back.

"We're okay.  Do you know what's up?"  Sam asked.

"I think it's one of those end-of-days groups."

"Here for us?"  Sam asked. For months there had been slightly more chatter online from that crowd about taking a shot at 'the Devil' but it hadn't been given too much attention.  Sam barely read the threat assessment reports anymore.  As the world got crazier, the number of people who wanted to kill him for any given reason grew.

"I don't think so.  It looked like they went after the bank across the street.  There's-". Dean started to answer, but was interrupted by the sound of another explosion.  It seemed to be coming from a side street instead of the front of the store, which threw their escape route into question.

"We're getting out of here."  Cas said as he reached forward and touched a hand to each of the brothers.  

Suddenly they were outside Sam & Ruby's cabin.  Cas staggered a little bit from the effort, but Dean caught & held him up until he collected himself.

"You okay Cas?"  Asked Dean.

"I'm fine, it's just difficult to teleport in through the wards sometimes."  Cas took a breath, then stood taller.  "I'll go back and get the Impala.  We wouldn't want her to get damaged."

"Thanks Cas."  Dean said as Cas reached to heal Dean's injured arm.  "Don't bother, I can patch it up.  Save your energy."

* * *

 Tom opened up the front door of their cabin and ran straight to Ruby.  She was a little surprised, but accepted his nearly debilitating hug without question.  Kaylee had been sitting on the floor close by, but seeing the opportunity for a group hug, she ran to Tom and hugged his leg.  Ruby turned to see Sam walk in the front door covered with dust, followed by a bleeding Dean.  Her eyes grew wide.  She patted Tom's head in reassurance and mouthed 'what the fuck happened?' to Sam.  In return, Sam briefly threw his hands up before rubbing his temples.

"Hey Tommy, have I ever shown you how to treat a cut like this?"  Dean asked, pointing to his shoulder.  Tom shook his head.  "Would you like me to show you?  Sam & I were stitching cuts when we were your age."

Tom seemed a little distracted by the chance to help Dean and learn something that made him more like his role models.  Sam patted Dean's back in wordless gratitude.  Dean reached down and picked up Kaylee with his good arm.

"Come on, munchkin.  Let's make you into a mummy as long as we're breaking out the first aid kit."

Once Dean had led the kids out of the room, Sam collapsed on the couch and let out a long sigh.  Ruby sat down on one of the armrests, then watched him.  She knew that something big had happened, but decided to give Sam a moment to order his thoughts.  He looked apprehensive more than anything else and that worried her more than the little pieces of drywall in Sam’s hair or the three inch long gash in Dean’s arm.

"There was some end-of-days group attack next to us- it wasn't directed at us, just a fluke.  A couple of explosions and gunfire..."  He looked her in the eyes.  "Ruby, it finally happened."

"What?"  She slid down the armrest onto the cushion next to him and put a hand on his thigh.

"He called me 'dad'."  Sam leaned his head back against the top of the couch so that he was staring at the ceiling.  "I don't even think he noticed it.  He was completely freaked out.  It was a slip."

"We kinda figured that this might happen.  I mean, he's basically been with us since day one."

"I know, and I'm fine with it... I just- we need to have a talk with him.  We've been dodging this thing too long."

* * *

 After slipping into their bedroom to get ready, Sam & Ruby asking Dean to continue watching Kaylee for awhile while they talked with Tom.  He’d retreated to his bedroom after watching the lesson in suturing a cut.  To his surprise, he was allowed to finish the last inch- minus knotting off the end.  In spite of the pride he’d felt, the sight of the blood had left him wanting to lay down for a bit.  He opted to lounge on his bed reading some comic books that Dean had brought him during a previous visit.

"Can we talk for a minute?"  Ruby asked, peeking her head in the open door.  Tom nodded as he sat up, then put his comics off to the side.  Sam sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, while Ruby pulled up a desk chair next to the bed.

"Tom, when we were at the store during the attack, do you remember what you said to me?"  Sam asked with as soft a tone and posture as his large frame would allow.  The last thing he wanted was for Tom to think that he’d done something wrong.  

Tom looked thoughtful as he replayed the scene in his mind.  After a moment his eyes widened a little and he looked down at his bedding.  He didn’t make a sound.  Sam put his hand on Tom's shoulder and squeezed it gently in reassurance.

"Do you remember your dad?"

"Some stuff."  Tom traced the seams of his pillow with his fingertips.  It'd been almost three years since Gabin had been killed.  For one third of Tom's life he'd lived with Sam & Ruby, but in terms of his memory that third was overwhelming.  "He would make me pancakes with blackberries in them.  When he’d make them, he sang to me... I don't remember what the songs were."

Tom refused to look at either of them and his shoulders slumped with the confession that he’d forgotten which songs Gabin used to sing.  Ruby leaned forward to bring herself into the edge of Tom’s vision.

“When we lose people, even people that are important to us, it’s normal to sometimes not remember things.  You haven’t done anything wrong, if you’re worried about that.”  She leaned closer into his field of view, but he didn’t try as hard to evade her gaze.  “Sam, me, Dean, Bobby, Belda- all of us have lost people and even though we want to hold onto every detail & memory, sometimes we can’t...  All we can hold onto for sure is that feeling they give us.”  

Ruby reached out and lightly tapped Tom’s chest over his heart with her fingertips.  Love was not a word that was ever really said around the camp or among the Winchester brothers.  Only once had Sam & Dean braved the foreign territory of seriously using the word and then it was promptly hidden away again.  Sam & Ruby had never used the word to describe their relationship, but that was largely because they almost never tried to described their relationship at all.  

It was an uncomfortable topic, but giving meaningful relationships the recognition they deserve was important, especially when trying to relate to Tom's relationship with his father.  Sam couldn't honestly relate through his own father's death, too many things had been dissimilar.  But he'd had another loss better suited for the reassurance Ruby & he were trying to give.  He took a breath to gain some courage.

“A few years ago, I had a friend… a girlfriend, Jessica, that I cared about more than anything and she died.  I was scared that because I’d lost her, that I’d lost all the happiness that being with her had brought me.  And after awhile, I forgotten some of the little things-"  Sam felt a faint tightness in his throat, but he swallowed and continued in spite of it..  "I don’t remember her smile, but just the thought of her smiling brings back some of that happiness she gave me when she was alive.”

“You don’t feel sad when you think about her?”  Tom asked quietly without looking up.

“Sometimes I do, but I try to focus on the time we had together and the joy it still gives me.”  Sam glanced up at Ruby.  “I didn’t think that I’d ever feel like that again, but then I found that Ruby makes me feel… she makes me happier than I’d thought possible.  But the way I feel about Ruby doesn't take away from the happiness that Jessica gave me.  I'm grateful that I've had so many people in my life that've cared about me- each in their own time and way."

Sam felt like he must’ve been blushing.  It was embarrassing enough talking about his relations with Jessica & Ruby, but it was even worse with Ruby sitting right there.  To her credit she didn’t tease him or say anything to further muddy the message that they were both trying to get at.  Sam wasn’t sure how clear his metaphor was or whether it was a sufficient segued into what they’d come in to talk about, but Tom at least seemed to have adopted a more receptive & contemplative posture.  Sam subtly nodded encouragingly at Ruby.

"Sam & I care about you & Kaylee more than anything.  We'll never replace your parents, Gabin & Grace, but we also want you to know that you're part of our family.”  Ruby smiled and took Tom's hand.  "Want to kinda make it official and have us be your other mom & dad?"

Tom started to tear up.  He squeezed her hand, then nodded, unable to speak.  He rushed forward and hugged Ruby.  She hugged him back, while pulling him close.  Tom was a little big to sit on Ruby's lap, but they didn't care.  

Sam watched Tom cling to his surrogate mother in desperation & relief.  Ruby & he had been Tom's primary guardians for years, but the lack of structure in the camp had stopped them from taking the next step.  They'd been scared to overstep their boundaries with him, but in the meantime Tom had been left in a nomansland.  The boy hadn't cared about boundaries or propriety, he cared about having parents that loved him.

"It's not a bunch of new clothes, but happy birthday."  Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver locket.  He handed it to Tom, who carefully examined it.  When opened from one side it revealed a photo of Gabin and a picture of the charcoal drawing of Grace that had been in the coven's classroom.  When opened from the other side it revealed a photo each of Sam & Ruby.  Tom slipped it on his neck and hugged them both.

* * *

11/16/2012

"Dean?  Is that you?"  Dean & Cas both turned around to see that the man they’d just passed on the sidewalk had stopped.  The man was in his forties with a greying beard that clashed with his still mostly dark brown hair.  He wore a denim jacket over a plaid green shirt and cowboy boots.  When he saw Dean’s face he put out his arms in surprised greeting that boarded on an invitation for a hug.

"Kent?”  Dean laughed and excited accepted the hug.  “Holy crap, man.  How long has it been?"

"Seven, maybe eight years.”  

"I'm glad to see you still up & kicking."  Dean shoved Kent’s shoulder playfully, then turned his body more to bring Cas into the conversation.  "This is Cas, my partner."

"It's nice to meet you."  Cas smiled with a warmth that the angel sometimes forgot to adopt when meeting new people.  

"Likewise.  You two wanna come over to my place for a quick beer?  I’m just down the street."

"Of course, you still owe me like a hundred beers.”

“-but who’s counting?”  Added Kent and he started walking them to his house.

Kent’s two bedroom bungalow was exactly what Dean had expected.  The living room walls were covered in posters for John Wayne movies, the furniture was all faded leather and knotted wood.  The kitchen looked almost untouched except for the 70’s era fridge that was partially held together with duct tape.  Kent grabbed three beers from the fridge, handed them to Dean, then turned on a secondhand CD player before taking a seat on the couch.

“I don’t keep your big hair rock.”  Kent teased Dean.  “You’ll have to settle for the man in black.”

“Johnny Cash is fine by me.  My dad used to listen to him.”  Dean opened his beer and took a sip, but Kent hesitated before taking his first sip.  He sighed while shaking his head.

"I'm sorry about your pop, he was a great."  Kent raised his beer in a half toast, then drank.

"Thanks man.”  Dean wasn’t sure whether Kent had ever actually met John, but early in their friendship Kent had loved hearing stories about the old man.  “He did a lot of good while he could, but you know how it goes in this line of work."

"Yeah... I heard about your brother."

"What'd you hear?"  Dean asked as his sipped his beer.  There were several rumors about Sam floating around, each iteration traveling within its own clique of hunters.  Half wrote Sam off as dead, half portrayed him as some sort of turncoat.  Kent’s sympathetic tone seemed to lean slightly toward the former.

"Some big bad took him..."  The corner of Kent's mouth turned downward as he decided to drop the sore subject.

'Took' probably alluded to one of the possession rumors, which meant that someone upstream had reason to believe Sam hadn't died uneventfully or retired.  Knowing the areas Kent liked to hunt in, it was probably the rumor that had cropped up in the Virginia region.  Some garbled retelling of the busted Devil's Gate mixed with that old North Carolinian antichrist rumor.  

The 'big bad' rumors always proved to be a dilemma for Dean.  He wanted to defend his brother, to try to explain that the situation isn't as harsh as it seemed-but the truth of the matter sounded so insane that it was dangerous.  He never wanted to feed the perception that Sam was something sinister, so he tried to say as little as possible on the subject.  For the most part, no one dared ask him about Sam for fear of bringing up painful memories.  

As much as Dean wanted to mitigate the number of people trying to kill Sam, it wasn't like he was easy to find or kill.  Sam was warded in every way imaginable.  At this point, he almost never left the camp while topside without at least one Knight.  And even if someone wanted to bring the fight to him, the second a living human crossed a gate into Hell they’d be on his radar... not to mention his telekinesis & First Light power.  Against some run of the mill hunters, Sam would be fine.  

It was everyone in Sam's orbit that Dean was more worried about.  But none of the rumors mentioned him having kids or that Sam might still interact with Dean & Bobby.  The intel that the hunters had gleaned through torturing demons before exorcism had so far only betrayed Sam's presence & prominence in Hell.  None of the hunters had yet thought to investigate his personal life- why would the devil have one?

"Kent, how long have you known Dean?"  Cas mercifully broke the silence while changing the subject.

"I guess it must be about 13 years-"

"Since 99’, was it Johnson City?  That was a hell of a weekend."  Dean smiled as he started the tale.  "I thought it was acheri demon for sure, so I was setting up this trap-"

"Wait- you were making a trap in that house?  I could never figure out why you had that paint all over your pants."  Kent begin laughing so hard that his eyes watered slightly.

"Well, yeah.  I was putting down the traps on the first floor and this guy somehow managed to get upstairs without me noticing."

"It wasn't that hard- fuck, I didn't even know you were there."

"Well, I'm like halfway through the trap- acheri need extra runes." Dean added for Cas' benefit.  "When I hear this noise above me.  I'm thinking it's the acheri coming straight down on me, so I decide to spray a little salt in the general direction."

"I'm upstairs looking around and I step on a weak floorboard.  It buckles a bit, because it's got this giant wardrobe on in, so I try to dive out of the way.  But some genius unloads a pair of shells into the floor right under me."

"I'm telling you, it would've come down either way- they were just salt shells."

"Anyway, half the room and I fall through the floor.  After the dust clears, I look up to see this guy- his legs are covered in blue paint, his top half covered in a Persian rug- he can't see shit, but he's already reloading."

"The ass got ripped out of your pants."  Dean grinned, serving the embarrassment back to Kent.

"Yeah, I'm lucky that's the only thing that got ripped out of my pants."

"So we're sittin' there gawking at each other and the monster shows up."

"It wasn't even an acheri, it was a specter.  Neither of us were packing silver, so we both just ran for it."  Dean was gesturing emphatically to help convey the action.  "Now, you know me, I'd never leave Baby except in an emergency- but I'm covered in paint.  So I jump in the back of Kent's pick up as he's hauling ass out of there."

"And that's how this asshole owed me a paint job before I even knew his name."

"I made good."  Dean said in his defense as he finished his beer.

"You shorted the detailer $500!"

"Him being lousy at pool isn't my fault."  Dean shrugged a little to cover his pride, then looked around the room.  "You have a bathroom around here I could use?"

"Yeah, down the hall on the right."

Dean walked down the hall, admiring the collection of photographs on the walls.  Many of the photos were of Kent with other hunters.  A few even had him holding relics from hunts.  Thank god Kent wasn’t the type to try to snap a pic next to a beheaded vamp corpse or the like- the guy was tacky, but not that tacky.

The first door on the right wasn't the bathroom, it was a standard hunter's workshop.  A small workbench held an ammunition press and other tools of the trade.  One of the walls was covered with newspaper clippings, another telltale sign of a hunter.  There was a large weapons safe stood in the corner.  Next to the safe was a pile of random clothing & equipment.

Dean took in the room at a glance and almost kept walking, until he saw the vest.  Doing a double take, Dean looked back into the workshop.  On top of the pile of clothes & equipment, was a bulletproof vest.  Shootouts were rare for a hunter, but not completely unheard of.  Yet that hadn't been the thing that drew Dean's attention.  The vest had been painted white with a stylized red cross on its chest.  He'd seen that somewhere before and it gave him chills.

Taking a slower look around the workshop, Dean noticed details he'd missed during his quick glance.  The bullet & shell packing station didn't have salt or silver at it.  The newspaper clippings weren't about missing persons or strange happenings.  They were about shootings, bombings, a few assassinations... and on one side of the board was a calendar of upcoming events.

Dean's heart started pounding.  He wasn’t sure what this all meant, but it wasn’t good.  He clicked off the safety on his pistol, then lowered the gun slightly behind him.

* * *

 "Don't move."  Dean said as he reentered the room and draw the pistol on Kent.

"Dean, what's going on?"  Cas asked in alarm, but Kent didn’t look particularly surprised.  The hunter slowly put down his beer bottle and raised his hands.

"He's got a fucking arsenal in the other room."  Cas was confused by why that was different than any other hunter, but the tension on Dean’s face made it clear that something was very wrong.

"Dean, buddy.  I can explain.  I was going to tell you- it's actually a good thing."

"I find that pretty fucking hard to believe."

"Yeah, you probably will, most people do."  Kent smiled briefly at some memory.  "Angels are real."

Cas & Dean exchanged a quick glance, but Dean's pistol remained fixed on Kent.  To his credit, Kent didn't try to take advantage of Dean's temporary distraction.

"I know it sounds crazy, but an angel spoke to me.  They need our help.  There's a war coming and if we win, then Earth- it'll be paradise.  Think about it, no more monsters or ghosts.  We don't need to be turning over rocks trying to find the filth for the rest of our lives."

Dean had heard of crazy people hearing voices, but Kent had always been an incredibly stable guy.  All the stress of the job had rolled off of Kent in a way that Dean had emulated when he was younger.  It was hard to imagine that one day Kent would just snap… and to snap so accurately was a coincidence that just didn’t happen.  There were a lot more doomsday theories floating around in the mainstream than even just a few months earlier, but hunters generally did their homework.  Kent wouldn’t be easily convinced without evidence.

Cas gave Dean a meaningful look, indicating that he was probably reaching a similar conclusion.  If Kent really had been visited by an angel, then Cas & he would need to tread softly.  The two of them were members of Heaven’s most wanted and they could be sitting in the living room of an agent of Heaven.  Disclosing that Cas was an angel might help their credibility Kent, but if they couldn’t talk him down, how would the hunter fail to report a run-in with a fallen angel?

As much as being there may have put them in danger, Kent had somehow gotten himself into some kind of arrangement that Dean needed to understand.  There might be a new threat out there and it seemed to have pulled in his friend.  He could probably leave with Cas, and port away to safety without Kent accidentally or intentionally giving up their location, but he couldn’t turn his back on the situation.  

"What did they ask you to do?"  Dean thought back to the seemingly endless news reports of the violence & destruction that had cropped up in the last year.  They’d written it off as exclusively Lilith… until they’d discovered the end-of-days mob… but the wall of newspaper clippings weren’t just the collection of an investigator or even an admirer, there had been calendars.  Something was going to happen, maybe something already had.  Dean felt a little faint.

"There's all the normal hunting- monsters, demons, witches, but there are some other kinds of threats-"

"Threats?  You mean humans?"

"Yes.”  To Dean’s limited relief, Kent’s voice seemed to at least betray some discomfort with the turn in the conversation.  “Some humans are trying to stop us."

"So you blow up a train station?"  That was one of the prominent clippings, ominously pinned right next to a printout of the track assignments for the week leading up to the attack.

"I didn't-”  Kent flustered a little, but recovered.  “We're doing what needs to be done.  The job is hard sometimes-  You know that better than anyone!  It sucks and we suffer- we lose people and we have to make the hard choices, but we do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

“I don’t know what you’ve been told, but this isn’t right.”  Dean licked his lips and his arms lowered a few millimeters from sheer disappointment.  It was painfully to see a friend so turned around by the entire situation.

“This is just the next logical step.  We’re still fighting evil, but now we’ve got support and real guidance- we don’t have to be running around in the dark anymore.  We can win this thing.”

“It’s not about fighting evil- it’s about protecting people.”

“This is protecting them.  There’s a big picture here!”  Kent threw his hands up in exasperation.  “You’ve been dealing with the little picture for so long- we all have been.  But you can’t focus on that.  Of course it’s gonna be messy some close to the ground, it always is-”

"But you're talking about killing people!  This isn’t ‘messy’ it’s dead innocent people!"  Dean yelled in desperation to get through to him.

"How do you know they're innocent?"

Dean's heart sank.  How was he supposed to argue with that?

"You're not working alone."  Cas' voice was quieted by the slow alarming realization.  Dean's eyes widened and he raised his gun a little more as he took on a more professional posture.

"Kent, who else is doing this?"  He pleaded, but Kent hesitated.  "Please man, I'm begging you to talk to me."

"I'm talking, but you've got to listen to me.  I know this is a lot to process at first, but you don't understand what an opportunity this is- just hear them out please."  Kent closed his eyes and began lowering his head.  Cas realized a second too late what he was doing and reached out to stop him from beginning his prayer.   

Dean fired twice.  

He sat down on the leather recliner and rested his elbows on his knees.  After placing his pistol on the coffee table, Dean buried his face in his hands.  Cas stood up from the couch and slowly walked over to Dean, giving Kent's body a wide berth.  He placed a hand on Dean's shoulder.

"He didn't successfully begin the prayer, but we should still go."  Dean looked through his fingers at Kent, then up at Cas.

"Cas, what's going on?"


	5. 2013

4/26/13

"I don’t know what’s going on with her.”  Ruby sounded worn out.  "She keeps taking off her shirt and scratching her back.  She says it feels ‘funny’.  I’m thinking maybe she’s allergic to something, but I don’t see any hives.“

Sam sat in his office and spoke to the silver goblet of blood.  He wasn’t a fan of Hell’s telecommunications system, but the blood did provide better clarity of sound than a normal phone.  Anyway, it was already filled when he’d gotten there.

"Maybe it’s the shirt?  Did you try changing the fabric type?”

“Yeah, I tried that.  I don’t think that- holy fuck.”  Ruby fumbled with the phone while either putting it down or dropping it.  Sam could hear Kaylee cry out and Ruby trying to comfort her.

Sam immediately popped back to their home, fearing the worst.  He looked in Kaylee’s room, the bathroom, then started toward the hallway when he saw them.

Ruby walked out of their bedroom holding Kaylee to her chest.  Two long slender black feathery wings hung from Kaylee’s back, just inside the shoulder blades.  The wings were fully extended and so long that their tips dragged on the floor.  Kaylee’s eyes were black, but barely open.  She looked like she was struggling not to fall asleep.

“One minute she was just running around and the next had wings.  I think it must’ve taken a lot out of her, she collapsed.”

Sam went over and gently touched one of the wings.  She fidgeted slightly, which caused the wings to move weakly.  The wings looked beautiful, but also strangely sad the way they drooped helpless to gravity.  It looked uncomfortable and his instinct was to swaddle her.  Sam carefully picked up one of the wings and folded it up, closer to her back.

“Cas should take a look at her.  He’s got something like a pair, maybe he’d know what’s going on.”  Sam suggested.

While pulling out his cell to call Dean, Sam helped Ruby fold up Kaylee’s wings.  Ruby wrapped an arm around her daughter’s back to help hold the wings.  Kaylee dosed with her face against Ruby’s neck.

“Dean, is Cas there?”  Sam patted Kaylee’s head reassuringly as he spoke.  "We need him to look at Kaylee- She has wings- Yeah, wings.“

Cas & Dean immediately appeared in the living room.  Cas was missing his necktie, suit jacket, & trenchcoat.  Dean was fully dressed, but obviously hadn’t shaved.  They both just stared at Kaylee for several seconds.

"I was curious if this would be an issue.”  Cas said without elaborating.

“You knew about this?”  Ruby threw Cas a what-the-fuck face.

“The angelic markings that first brought her grace to my attention looked similar to the foundation of wings, but for her to actually manifest them…”  Cas leaned forward unconsciously to see Kaylee better.  "Can I examine them?“

"Just be gentle, she’s pretty exhausted from it.”  Ruby warned as she carried Kaylee over to Cas.

He held out one of the wings.  When it was fully extended he let go of it and stepped back in surprise.  His eyes shot to Sam, then returned to Kaylee.  

“Cas?  Are you okay?”  Dean asked in concern.

“I just haven’t seen wings like these since- The color is wrong, but the shape and feather pattern…”  Cas hesitated.  "are identical to Lucifer’s wings.“ 

* * *

 

08/02/13

“Shola, can you contact Hael.”  Sam requested as he finished flipping through a stack of papers on his desk.  “I should go make penance, if she’s free to patch me up I’d like to take care of it before the next Council meeting.”

“I’ll contact her right away.”  Shola said before disappearing.

It had been a long few weeks in Hell.  Hathai was having a disagreement with Morrison over a brawl that had resulted in eight Luxia & six Maji being injured.  Sam held court on the matter within hours in order to prevent any retribution between castes.  Unfortunately, after the trial he referred to Lucifer as “the locked down lord” within earshot of Hathai.  Within the Citadel it was no secret that Sam didn’t worship Lucifer, but he was still expected to keep up appearances while in Hell.  The slight combined with the fact that Sam was in a relationship with a Maji had caused some resentment among the conservative castes.

He wanted to go appease Hathai & the Luxia before the next Council meeting.  The last thing he needed was to have Hathai & her sympathizers throw up roadblocks on every point on the agenda because of hurt feelings.  

“Hael can see you as long as you leave here within five days.  I’ve prepared a talisman queued up for her apartment.”  Shola explained when she reappeared a moment later.  She handed Sam the small copper coin talisman, which he slipped into his pocket.

“I’ll be back shortly.”  Sam stood up and stretched.

“Sam,”  Shola stopped him before he ported away.  “thank you.”

“I was the idiot who decided to talk about Lucifer before Hathai left the interior.”  Sam shrugged.  He was getting too comfortable while sitting on his throne.  This would be a lesson to remember.

“No, I mean thanks for trying to keep them happy.”

Roughly thirty percent of the demons in Hell practiced a human religion.  That wouldn’t be a big deal except for the fact that Hell had a state religion.  Had Lilith been in power there almost certainly would have been a cleansing of the heretics years earlier.  Despite her flaws, Hathai was at least practical enough to know that Hell couldn’t afford the loss of so many demons.  Instead she allowed them to practice their own faiths as long as it was in secret.  Shola was one of those demons.

“It’s my job.”  Sam said and smiled at her.

“No it isn’t.”

* * *

 Sam arrived outside of Hathai’s favorite temple in the Central District.  He could’ve popped directly into the entry hall, but the whole point of the exercise was to be seen.  A few dozen demons on the street spotted him and whispered at the prospect of him going to temple.  He paused for a moment at the doorway, pretending to have some reverence while actually just giving his audience an extra few seconds to perceive him.

He entered the hall, which was lined with twenty Luxia going about their prayers.  His presence broke the concentration of several of them.  He could sense them straining to covertly observe him.  Several were skeptical of his sincerity, which he noted for future reference.  Hathai was bowed in prayer at the head of the hall.  Sam moved to stand beside her and gazed up at the massive stone statue of Lucifer.

“Are you here to make jokes or penance?”  Hathai asked without opening her eyes.

“I’m here to beg forgiveness of my creator, of my master.”  Sam offered.  She looked up at him warily.

“You wouldn’t have to beg for forgiveness so frequently if you learned to respect him.”  Hathai observed.

“I think the First Light may be made of rebellion.”  Sam mused.  “A gift to illuminate flawed systems.”

“Just beware not to illuminate the failings too close to its current source.”  Hathai turned to him.  “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”  Sam unbuttoned his long jacket, removed it, then handed it off to one of Hathai’s assistants.  He took off his simple black t-shirt, revealing his heavily tattooed torso.  After removing his shoes & socks, he slipped off his pants.  Without checking to see how many demons were watching, he took off his boxers.

He stood naked in front of the crowd that had grown to nearly forty Luxia.  Technically, the temple door was unlocked.  Any demon could walk in and watch him make penance, but very few dared to enter the Luxia’s domain even for such a spectacle.  This was his thirtieth time making penance and his sense of modesty while inside the temple had died around the fifth time.

Sam approached the altar to Lucifer.  He looked down at the display of tokens to the demon castes.  On his first visit he’d committed the faux pas of casually tapping the tiny silver scale of the Crossroads.  He’d had to seek a second round of penance for playing around in a house of humorless faith.  He picked up the cat o’ nine tails of the Torquean and held it out to Hathai.

“Would you assist me?”  Sam asked.  

It wasn’t a sincere invitation, instead it was something of a custom.  He wasn’t really capable of torturing himself convincingly, but at the same time it was considered a lethal offense for anyone to hurt him without his consent.  So each time he wanted to earn points with the more religious factions of Hell through self-flagellation he had to literally invite someone to torture him.

“For you, gladly.”  Hathai smiled and accepted the whip.

Thankfully there were predetermined limits to the torture.  He was never worked to the point of endangering his health and no one risked causing injury to his genitals.  It was a more delicate process than any other torture of Hell, but he was the only person in Hell who had a body capable of breaking.  And since angels weren’t allowed in Hell, his closest healer was one talisman hop away.

He knelt down on the rough, cold stone.  His hands gripped the edge of the altar.  He looked up at the carving of the Archangel with false contemplation, then took a deep breath.

“Please begin.”  He instructed.

It was customary to beg for forgiveness and offer praise to Lucifer while being whipped.  He managed to get through asking for forgiveness for his disrespectful tone, but his heart just wasn’t in it for much more.  There was too much to do for him to be singing the virtues of some long-secluded whiney genocidal angel.  Sam tried to keep it together, but the absurdity of his situation made his concentration falter.

“What is your praise of Hell, our people, our father?”  Hathai asked, starting the second half of the ritual.

“Here we belong… fighting for survival.”  Sam grinned through the pain.  “He will come to be the ruler of our world.  He is immortal… Through his grace I have inside me blood of kings.”

Hathai struck him harder than normal.  Sam should’ve taken the warning, but he couldn’t help himself.  None of the other Luxia could make out his words.

“He has no rival.  No man can be his equal-”  Sam was cut off by Hathai whipping him viciously in rapid succession.  He gritted his teeth partially to stop himself from crying out and partially to stop himself from laughing.  She’d caught him crossing the line- he let her have the righteous pleasure of getting back at him.  By the time she was done beating him he could sense that some of her anger had been quelled.

“Please excuse our audience.”  She whispered to him.  It was tempting to deny her the private conversation, but he reminded himself that his original intention was to improve her mood.

“Everyone but Hathai shall leave.  I need to consult with my spiritual counsel.”  Sam ordered, earning a fresh spark of annoyance in the Archdemon.  After the temple’s hall was cleared, she shook the whip at him, but didn’t move to hit him.

“If you pull another stunt like that-”  Hathai started.

“Well I’m sorry if it’s hard to come up with prayers while you’re beating me.”

“Then maybe you should spend more time studying the true faith instead of your stories.  Then you might have some of your prayers memorized.”

“Our alliance with Earth demands a broad range of knowledge.  I’m being diplomatic.”  Sam smirked.

“Diplomacy starts at home.”  She replied.  He didn’t have any comeback.

Hathai picked up his pants from the floor, pulled the copper talisman from his pants pocket and embedded in deep into a cup of salt on the altar.  She turned back to Sam, dropped the whip on the floor in front of him, then walked away.

Sam looked up at the statue of Lucifer again.  The Archangel was depicted, not as the picturesque man that so many humans envisioned the angel to be, but instead as a creature of many faces.  Lucifer was neither male nor female.  Zie was beautiful, horrific, & fierce- more than that, zie was oppressive.  A being too awesome to be contained to any form, even zie’s tributes inspired a swell of emotions.  

For Sam, he mostly felt loathing & fear… both at the Archangel zirself, but also at the strange feeling of familiarity depictions of Lucifer produced in him.  Every time he heard a new story about the Morningstar it hit his nostalgia as an old bedtime story might.  When he gazed into the statue above him, he saw his own eyes staring back.  It didn’t matter if it was his imitation, it still scared him… But he couldn’t keep letting his disgust at & fear of Lucifer risk harming Hell’s internal political climate.

“I’m going to do this for them, not for you.”  He told the stone beast.

Sam gingerly picked up the whip and pulled himself into a standing position.  He carefully returned the whip to its stand, then retrieve the talisman.  The salt didn’t burn him the way it had Hathai, but he took the insult for what it was.  Several cuts on his hand stung as he grabbed the coin.  He tidied up the altar, attempting to give it some small measure of respect.  Lastly, he cleaned his blood from the floor, then held his clothes in front of his crotch as he activated the talisman.

* * *

 12/03/13

 

When Ruby got home, Sam was sitting alone at the kitchen table.  He’d been waiting for her and wasn’t bothering to hide his frustration.  Their cabin was silent because he’d asked Isa to take Tom & Kaylee on a long hike.  He didn’t want them to be around when Ruby finally came home.  
  
They were going to have a… hopefully talk, possibly fight.  Both of them knew it would happen after their argument downstairs.  Ruby had marched into the throne room during a meeting with several military advisers, repelling uncertain guards with well timed glares.  Sam had to cancel the meeting, then he retreated to his office to get chewed out by Ruby in private.

She’d found out that she had been removed from the roster for field testing several new magic based weapons of her design.  When Sam had heard about the planned trip into a contested section of the Lower Pits he’d asked Morrison to reassign her to more work within the safety of the Citadel.  He was just trying to spare her the trouble & danger, but she’d taken it as a blow to her pride.  
  
 Their fight in his office lasted for less than a minute before she left Hell in a rage, but to his surprise she didn’t go home.  She’d disappeared for almost five hours.  When he’d gotten home and realized she was gone he’d hastily checked to see if any of her belongs were missing.  To his relief, everything was where it should be except Ruby.  She wouldn’t answer his calls.  He tried to locate her, but her warding against humans & demons blocked Sam twofold.  So, he’d just had to wait and hope that she came home soon.  
  
 "Where were you?  It’s been hours-“  He couldn’t even begin to sort through his feelings.  Somewhere in the last few hours his fear, frustration, & guilt had gotten all mixed up.  Judging by her expression, Ruby was equally confused by the whole interaction.  Normally they were a united front, it was unsettling as hell to be at odds.  
  
"I needed some time to myself.”  
  
 "You left without telling anyone where you were going.  It’s dangerous out there.“  

For the last two years, there’d been an increasing number of terrorist attacks, both by Templars and other random factions.  They’d barely dodged an attack on Tom’s birthday about a year earlier.  But it was Dean’s near death experience a month ago that had really brought it home for Sam.  Heaven was stepping up their game and didn’t care about collateral damage.

"I know it’s fucking dangerous- I know that better than most.  I just needed some time to try and calm down.  This whole fucking thing…”  She shook her head while taking a deep breath.  
  
"I get that you’re pissed, that I messed up your plans-”  
  
“You pulled me from that mission without even talking to me!”  She couldn’t help shouting.  He didn’t even seem to understand what was wrong.  
  
“And you volunteered for an insane stroll through a war zone without even talking to me!”  Sam reflexively raised his voice to match hers.  "When I started in Hell, you were the one that made a big deal about the importance of not making unilateral decisions that affect all of us- well, you dying would affect all of us.“  
  
"I’m not some jerk-off little underling.  You used to trust me to be able to take care of myself.  Now I can’t even risk the chance of a fight?”  
  
"I’m not saying that- But what the fuck happened to us being a team?  You didn’t even talk to me.”  
  
"You don’t talk to me every time you go into the Pits.  Danger happens.  It’s been part of our lives for… our entire lives.”  
  
“That doesn’t mean we go looking for it.”  Sam know she wasn’t actually looking for danger, but she wasn’t properly weighting the risks & benefits.  He decided to come at it from another angle.  Rubbing his neck in exasperation, he softened his tone.  "We were going to settle down- that was the plan for having Kaylee.  We’d be safe and be there to take care of her.“  
  
"That was your plan- and that was back when we had an out.  This is a war, one that we have to win.  There is no out.  We’re in it.”  The anger drained from her and was replaced with the heaviness of hard realities.  
  
“I’m stuck in this, but you don’t have to be.  We have to think about the kids.”  He pleaded with her, but she rolled her eyes while sighing.  
  
“I fucking am.  You & them are why I’m still in this.  I’m fighting for them.”  
  
“But you can’t-”   
  
“No! Can’t is a big word.  You better think before you start throwing that around.”  She pointed at Sam, warning him that she was about two poorly chosen words from laying into him.  "You can tell me what I shouldn’t do, but you don’t get to tell me I can’t do.  You’re the one that was just talking about us being a team, but you’re blocking me from doing my job and setting ultimatums.  I’m not one of your peons, I’m your fucking partner.“  
  
Ruby sat down in the chair next to him and slumped a little on the table.  She looked as emotionally worn out as he felt.  Sam reached out to touch her, to physically give her comfort, but hesitated for a second.  Gently, his hand gripped her shoulder, then slid down her arm, and rested on her hand.  After a painfully long moment, she squeezed his hand back.  
  
"I’m not trying to run your life.  I’m just scared.  The kids need us.”  There had been a time when he thought it wouldn’t destroy him to raise a child on his own.  That had been one of the premises on which the agreement to have Kaylee was decided- but now things were different.  Kaylee was almost four and they had two children.  Kaylee & Tom loved Ruby, her death would crush them.  Sam had spent decades witnessing Dean’s pain caused by the loss of their mother.  He would fight tooth & nail to spare his own kids that pain.  "They need their mom.“  
  
"The kids need a lot of things… and that’s what we need to be.”  She turned to look him in the eyes.  "We need to be their parents, but we also need to be more than that.  You’re holding the fragmented Abyss together with leadership like Hell hasn’t known in millennia and they have no idea.  How are they supposed to know what they’re capable of if they don’t see that from us?  Where is Kaylee supposed to learn that women can fight & lead if she only sees you & Dean doing it?  How will Tom discover the impact that magic can make in the world if he only sees the cheap tricks we throw around here?“  
  
"I… I just want you all to be safe.”  She drew his hand to her lips for a reassuring kiss.  
  
“I know.  But nowadays safety is just survival, I want more than that for our kids.” 

* * *

 

12/28/2013

Sam leaned against the edge of the massive stone table and sighed.  There were forty three piles of paper, each embodying a proposed contract.  Twenty five of the contracts were internal to Hell and would need to be gone over with the utmost attention to detail.  The last thing they needed was for some tiny oversight to undermine the fledgling policy changes they had recently put in place.

“I see it now, this really is Hell.”  Muttered Sam as he thumbed through the closest pile, looking for anything exciting.  

Crowley stepped forward to stand next to Sam before assessing their workload.  He held out a crystal glass of scotch to Sam, who accepted it with a reflexive nod of appreciation.  Crowley sipped from his own more liberally filled glass, then circled the table while eyeing the piles.  He began skimming through a shorter stack and smirked.

“You’ll like this one, Ravana is proposing to give us 35% of his privately held souls in exchange for control of six parcels of territory in the Upper Pits.”

“Did he have specific parcels in mind?”

“Yes, and there’s nothing of value in any of them.”  
  
“Well that’s not suspicious at all.”  Sam rolled his eyes, sipped his scotch, then placed the glass down between several piles. “You’d think that demons would be either less generous or at least better thieves- so who doesn’t know the value of what they have, him or us?”

“I’ll send some people out to assess the parcels.”  Offered Crowley.  
  
"Is that area fairly safe?  I need to look at something aside from provisions for a bit.“  The Archdemon thought for a moment, weighing the potential risks.  
  
"You’re not going to get jumped right out of the gate, but you might not want to build a holiday home there.”  
  
Sam turned to the ever-vigilant Mir, standing silently at attention by the chamber door.  
  
"Mir, you feel like a walk?“  The Knight nodded slowly to Sam.  "You coming Crowley?”

* * *

The total area in question was the size of ten by fifteen large city blocks.  It held two dozen dungeons that mostly took the approaches to torture of either solitary confinement in cells a bit smaller than a coffin or the classic technique of flaying.  Sam preferred the solitary confinement dungeons because they rarely involved cries for help or sidestepping blood & viscera.    
  
It had been hard adjusting to the carnage intrinsic in the environment.  The first time he visited a dungeon, Crowley had to immediately take him back to a seclusion of the Citadel.  For days he was barely able to eat- if there had been any question as to whether he was a vegetarian, it was decided that day.  It had taken awhile for him to become somewhat desensitized to the violence, but it was part of the job.  
  
The majority of the dungeons in the Pits were essentially below ground in that there was no empty space separating their outermost walls.  The roofs sometimes varied drastically in height, creating cliffs that were appropriately carved from stone.  Stone staircases or metal ladders allowed access from one rooftop to another.  The rooftops were prized real estate to demons because they gave a view of Hell’s great expanse.  It was almost unheard of for souls to walk the surface of the Pits, it was reserved for those who’d earned even such a pathetic perk.  

Demons didn’t have homes, but many who didn’t work in the Central District would spend their free time on the surface of the Pits.  So, when Sam started exploring the Pits he found scenes reminiscent of patio gathers.  He’d been surprised to witness demons just standing & sitting around chatting, but it made sense in a way.  Demons didn’t sleep and after witnessing how Ruby would occasionally get fatigued, he realized that even demons needed some time to recharge… well, everyone except him.    
  
Sam descended one of the metal ladders from one rooftop to another.  He marveled briefly at the metal comprising the forty foot long ladder.  At first he’d assumed that these metal fixtures in Hell were just iron, then he realized how disastrous that would be.  When he’d asked Crowley during the first few weeks of their alliance, it was explained that most of the ores were cobalt or tungsten.  Climbing down the cobalt ladder, Sam wondered why blue wasn’t more frequently associated with Hell.  He supposed the seas of Earth or symbolic sky of Heaven already laid claim to that association.  
  
"Are you going to climb every sodding ladder?“  Crowley called up to Sam.  
  
"I’m being thorough.”  Sam yelled down as he finished off the last dozen rungs.  Crowley stepped closer, leaning in to speak quietly with Sam.  
  
"I know you’re not entirely comfortable with the whole teleporting perk, but you can’t just walk and climb everywhere.“  Crowley glanced at a handful of lesser demons standing a few yards off watching them with candid fascination.  "It’s unseemly.”  
  
"Come on, I just want to get some exercise.  It’s a miracle your body isn’t entirely atrophied with how much you port.“  
  
"I get my exercise.”  Crowley objected.  
  
"Just the other day, I saw you port to the opposite side of the table to grab a paper.“  Crowley scowled, but didn’t argue.  "Anyway, we’re supposed to be searching this place, I don’t want to miss the hidden treasure trove because I didn’t take the stairs.”  
  
"We’ve already gone through five parcels and there hasn’t been anything of value beyond your standard dungeons- the third flaying den had a good number of tender souls, but besides that nothing noteworthy.“  
  
A tender soul was a soul that had been worked over to near breaking, which had a more immediate value than the underripe variety. A dungeon that was tender soul heavy, was to be prized, but there were probably twice as many tender souls in the collection that Ravan was proposing to trade.  By itself, the dungeon wouldn’t be enough to justify the deal, so they had to keep looking.  
  
"At least we’ve only got one more parcel to go.”  Sam rubbed his neck and sat down on a roughly carved stone bench.  "I need to take a break for a sec though.  I’m going to go insane if I have cross check another den’s inventory.“  
  
Sam looked out across the grey & tan stone rooftops, beyond them to the distant edge of Hell.  As if in a classical depiction of Hell, it was encompassed in a large chamber of stone.  At the very edge of the Pit was a stone face that extended up hundreds of feet above the highest rooftops, curving inward to a domed stone ceiling.  He had wondered what was beyond the stone, but it seemed that no one in Hell knew.  It was easy to see why humans would have assumed that Hell was located in the center of the Earth prior to the discovery of its iron core.  Sam had initially smiled at the idea of all these demons living in an iron core, but revisiting the idea four years later, it didn’t seem so funny.  
  
He saw that a small crowd of demons had formed to see him.  Early on it had been unsettling the way the demons treated him.  He had a celebrity status that was unaccustomed, but he quickly accepted that that was part of being a divine monarch.  Crowley had sought him out to be the figurehead and it had come easier than expected.    
  
The group watching him whispered in Abyssal, and he only didn’t understanding a word or two.  They were speculating & arguing about just how impressive or menacing Sam was up close.  

Wanting to improve his political base and also looking for a little entertainment, Sam leaned forward and placed his hand on the stone rooftop.  He shut his eyes and focused for a moment, illuminating the small patch of stone in The First Light.  
  
There was something to be said for being The First Light.  Hell seemed to resonate with strange potential that only he could feel.  Lucifer had created the entire plane, and while a vessel was nowhere near as powerful as their angel, Sam felt… if not the spark of creation, then at least a small artistic inclination.  He could change things, maybe not by much, but even fleeting improvement was something rare & beautiful in a place like Hell.  

  
When he pulled his palm back from the stone a small patch of grass grew from it.  Based on the experiments Sam had run while killing time, since he made the grass outside the Citadel it would likely wither & die several days later.  The closer he was to The Seat, the easier it was for him to create tiny areas of plant life.  Within the great hall, he could make a simple garden without even getting up from his throne.  He hadn’t fully tested the range of his abilities, but creating life, even just plants always struck a profound chord with the demons who lived in such a stark & lifeless environment.  
  
"You do that enough and they’ll have you performing at birthday parties.”  Crowley muttered as he indicated the demons who were visibly awed by the display.  Three blinked away, only to return seconds later having collected others to see the grass.  
  
"They like it.“  
  
"It’s Hell, we’re not supposed to care what anyone likes unless it benefits us.”  Crowley sipped his scotch, from a glass that seemed to magically appear whenever he needed it.  Sam smiled, earned another murmur from the crowd.  
  
“Speaking of birthday parties, how old’s the pup now?”  
  
"Four.  She just figured out how to use the light.  We were pretty scared that she might hurt someone while learning, but she’s been really careful- which is something of a miracle.  I swear she’s a menace, like Ruby or Dean.  
She’s also starting to experiment with flying, which is weird as hell.  Cas can technically go after her, but he’s not always around.  Luckily, she’s been really good about following the important rules, like don’t fly too high and don’t let strangers see.“  
  
"Does she know where you go?”  
  
"Yes & no.  She knows it’s Hell, but she doesn’t get what that means.  She doesn’t understand death or the different planes.“  
  
There was an awkward silence while Sam & Crowley both waited to see who would bring up the same old disagreement.  From the very beginning Crowley and the other Archdemons had been pressing Sam to bring Kaylee to Hell.  Within Hell, the existence of a born demon was rumor that sometimes bordered on gospel depending on the caste.  Yet Sam had always been vague when speaking about her- even Crowley didn’t actually know her name.  Sam glanced knowingly over at Crowley, silently giving him permission to get the pitch over with already.  
  
"You know how much it would mean to have her visit.  Just letting the council see her-”  
  
"I don’t want her down here.“  Sam leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.  He absentmindedly played with the hem of his left sleeve while looking out over his domain.  
  
"Are you worried she’ll be scared or in danger?  Just keep her in the Citadel.  Worried we’ll be a bad influence on her?  Well, that’s inevitable.  And so is her finding out what you really do.”  Sam’s lips pursed ever so slightly at the last comment.  Crowley shrugged, then added as an aside.  “You need to work on that tell.”  
  
"She’s a kid- I just want to let her stay a kid as long as possible.”  Sam confessed.  “Coming here might change that.“  
  
"After the blitzkrieg Heaven’s been pulling on Earth lately, I’m not sure it’s likely that anyone gets to stay a kid for long.  I know that you are hidden better than most, but pretty soon she’s going to start asking questions and most the answers these days are pretty harsh.”  
  
Sam rubbed his face. He knew it was true, but it didn’t make it any easier to accept.  It was the thought of his kids growing up in that mess of a world that kept him up at night and picked at the back of his mind when he was strolling the Citadel’s endless halls.  
  
"She’s already asking questions.  And Tom has been asking to learn to fight- he’s starting to listen to the talk around the dinner table.  The other day he sewed wards into half her clothes.  Pretty soon she’ll be wanting to know why… and if she comes down here.“  Sam looked down at his hands, which had killed so many demons and performed minor miracles in the Abyss.  "I just don’t want her to be corrupted by this place.  I can endure it because I know how to fight that darkness inside me.  But she doesn’t have any idea about evil.”  
  
"How did you learn about it?“  
  
"The hard way.”  
  
"Some lessons don’t have an easy way.“  Crowley offered with an apologetic tilt of the head.  
  
Sam leaned back in his chair and looked at the skyless ceiling high above him.  As much as this plane was a strange sandbox of potential, it was also a prison.  It had its obvious negatives, yet with him around to protect her maybe it was one of the most controlled environments in which to learn how to resist evil…  Also, in Hell, he wouldn’t have to worry about Kaylee flying off one day.  Sam sat upright at an epiphany.  
  
"Land rights here, what do they cover?”  Sam asked.  
  
"What?“  
  
"On Earth, at least in some places, before air travel started screwing it up when you bought land you actually bought a cone of space.  It was from a point at the center of the earth out, intersecting the surface of the Earth at the borders of your property, and out to infinity.  You got the mineral rights below you and the sky above.”  
  
"What’re you getting at?“  Crowley raised an eyebrow.  
  
"These Upper Pits parcels are restricted going down by the Lower Pits below them, but is there a restriction on the chamber ceiling?”  
  
"No.  But why would anyone care, it’s probably a hundred meters up at least.“  
   
Sam moved closer to Crowley and whispered in his ear.  
  
"There’s something up there.”


	6. 2014

1/21/2014

Dean & Cas stood in the small alleyway outside the back door of the W hotel.  It was shortly after one in the morning and the fog had blanketed San Francisco, obscuring visibility beyond a dozen feet.  Dean exhaled into his hands for warmth while they waited.

"How is it that we can live in Canada for four years and sunny California is a million times colder?"  Dean complained to Cas.  The sound of footsteps caught his attention and turned to look down the darker end of the alley.

"'The coldest winter I ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco.' Mark Twain."  Dean smirked a little at Sam's offered quote, but it didn't make him any warmer.

Sam emerged from the fog with a small smile on his face.  He was followed by a young asian woman, a large man with a Mediterranean complexion, & middle eastern woman in a pumpkin colored hijab.  The four of them wore pant suits of varying greys & black.  Sam in his usual style didn't bother with a tie or buttoning his blazer.   Shola carried a brushed stainless steel briefcase that Dean noted was chained to her wrist.  The other two were each armed with at least two pistols & an angel blade, by Dean's quick assessment.

"You're getting a flare for the dramatic."  Dean critiqued.

"You'd be surprised how often a little style can make the difference in a deal.  And look who's talking, having this meeting in a boutique hotel?"  

"Would anyone ever look for us here?"  Dean had selected the hotel, yet the bill somehow managed to end up on Hell’s tab- not that it was a big deal, Hell had a 10% interest in San Francisco's entire financial district.  

"I'm not complaining, it's nice that we get to have the meet up somewhere that has more than a one star review.”  Sam rubbed his neck anxiously.  “Is everyone else here?  I know we're running behind.  We had trouble getting the parchment without killing- you know what, nevermind."

"They're all inside.  It's only a few minutes after, they can forgive it.  Maybe don’t mention whatever you had to kill for the parchment."  Sam huffed a weak laugh at Dean’s suggestion.  There was a moment of hesitation, then Dean put his hand on Sam's shoulder.  "You sure about going public like this?"

"We'll have to step out of the shadows eventually.  I might as well do it on my own terms and get some benefit from it."

"It's going to be weird seeing you work, isn't it?"  

"Yeah.  I'll try not to be too much of an ass, but honestly I think they'd be more scared if I was too nice.”  Sam sighed.  “Don’t try too hard to defend me and don’t get pissed if I’m a dick to you.”

This was going to be the first time that Sam & Dean were going to be seen publicly since Sam had become King of Hell.  There was something to be said for keeping their public relationship strictly professional.  Neither of them wanted Sam’s bad reputation to rub off on Dean, Bobby, or Cas… yet Dean wasn’t as comfortable with giving Sam the cold shoulder.

“Just don't break any of my bones and I'll manage."  Dean reassured as Sam gathered his composure.

“Well, let's go make history."  Sam held out his hand inviting Dean & Cas to enter the building first.  

Dean led the party through the kitchen's back door, down a service hallway, & up two flights of stairs.  They took a few turns before arriving at a conference room.  Already seated at the large mahogany table were Bobby, twelve other hunters, & four fallen angels.

Cas entered the room first, but Dean stayed back just before the door for a second to whisper hello to Shola.  The two guards brought up the rear.

Sam stopped just inside the doorway and looked over the room.  His eyes lingered on the ceiling and the massive area rug covering the floor.  He sacrificed precaution for the diplomatic benefit of appearing to be trusting.  If there were any hidden devil's traps in the room he could bust them in a split second, should things turn sour.

Sam took the free seat at the head of the table, he was the instigator of the meeting after all.  To his relief, Tora & Joseba didn't make a spectacle of any concerns they might have about Sam taking the seat that was most likely to be trapped.  Shola took the seat to his right.  Dean sat further down the table, between Tamara & Cas.

"Who're they?"  Carl, a hunter out of the Salt Lake City area, asked nodding at the two guards who were standing at attention behind Sam.

"Extra protection.  They don't speak English, so they're just flies on the wall if everything goes well."  He didn't bother distinguishing them as honored guest as far as demons were concerned.  The hunters knew they'd be meeting with the King of Hell, but to have two Knights of Hell in the room might prove too much for their already strained sensibilities.  Thankfully, the fallen angels appeared to be keeping the new discovery close to the chest.

"You're just bringing more demons in here?"  Complained Marcus, a hunter from Wichita who represented a network of over two dozen hunters with loose ties to Bobby’s network.  Sam's lips thinned subtly at his tone.

"I brought an assistant & two guards, who have been instructed to protect everyone in this room.  If you want to make a big deal out of their species, then be prepared for that to impact your bargaining position.  We're here to cooperate in an attempt to resolve a threat to Earth, not Hell."  Sam let his point hang in the air for a beat before continuing.  "So, I suggest you don't start turning away help at your gates."

"Help from Hell, have things seriously gotten that bad?"  Muttered Carl.

"You showed up didn't you?"  Coutered Bobby.

"So what, we're desperate and Hell is ready to just roll in and barter for our souls?  They're going to screw us.  We can't trust demons-"  Argued Marcus.

"If I may,"  Shola interrupted forcefully, but with a smile.  "We would like to present our proposal.  Your concerns will be addressed to the best of our ability and if you are unsatisfied, then we will leave without confrontation."

"And what if there is a confrontation."  Marcus said in something not quite rising to the level of a snarl.

"Then you'll have been the one to start it, but you won't be the one to end it."  Dean said, trying to restore order to the proceedings.  "This is a peaceful meeting.  If anyone wants to fight, take it outside.  In here we've got work to do."

The silence from the group indicated everyone's tacit agreement.  Dean shot his brother an almost imperceptible pleading look in the hopes that Sam wouldn't make things too difficult.  Sam was trying to walk a fine line between being ominously generous and alienating.  Dean just hoped he wouldn't have to try to break up any brawls- with the Knights, Sam, & the angels there, they could probably level the building in one good spat.

"I can't believe we're actually thinking about making a deal with the devil."  Marcus sighed as he leaned back in his chair.  Sam had given up trying to fight the nickname years ago and just embraced the power it incidentally gave him.

"Yeah well, the devil also went to your sister's wedding, so take tonight with a grain of salt."  Dean & Rufus both smirked a bit at Sam's comment.

"You've called us here to make an offer- that's what your people are best at, isn't it?"  Said Anael, one of Cas' favorite sisters.  Her tone was cautious, yet it carried less disgust than Sam had expected from an angel as high ranking as the former commander of Earth's entire garrison.  She had only agreed to come because Cas had asked her to, but upon seeing four other siblings for the first time in decades she had started to become confident.  "So, tell us what we have to lose without you & gain with you."

* * *

 "We've all seen the carnage on the news or firsthand.  There are at least three distinct groups that are causing it.”  Sam began his pitch by bringing everyone onto the same page and outlining their common enemies.  “The easiest group is your common end-of-days fanatics.  The problem is that there are a lot of them and there are a lot of them because they're not exactly wrong.  By some definitions we're looking down the barrel at the apocalypse, but we haven't passed the point of no return yet.  The other two groups are trying to get us there.

Heaven has been recruiting hunters & other combat trained humans to apply pressure.  They've been responsible for many of the recent emergencies- Templars mostly handling the traditional terrorist attacks & angels have started bringing down a lot of 'acts of God'.

The last group is a minority faction of demons, lead by several Archdemons, the most prominent of which in named Lilith.  They have been working to unleash Lucifer upon the Earth."  All of the hunters aside from Bobby & Dean looked alarmed by the news, but none of the fallen angels were remotely surprised.  Sam continued before they got bogged down in the details with Lucifer.  He knew where Shola's loyalties lied, but the two Knights both supposedly had a personal history with the Archangel.  "Hell has been actively fighting Lilith's forces for five years.  We've reduced their numbers considerably, but they've gone to ground on Earth and it's been difficult to locate them-"

"You're talking about this like we're in a war, but we're just a few hunters talking about... I mean how big of a problem are we facing really?"  Asked Tara, an old friend of John's.

"You may be thinking small scale, but the problem is systemic.  Mortality rates have increased significantly across the board, and it's not us."  Sam didn't look at Dean while categorically including himself with hellspawn.  "They're treating this like a war because they want a war.  They want Heaven & Hell to have a grand battle that will eliminate one side and it'll destroy Earth in the process.  Until they get their war or there’s a change of power, Heaven is going to harass Earth to try eliciting a response.  They need to be resisted, and Earth needs to be the one in charge of that resistance."

"It's true.  I've seen it."  Added Rachel, a fallen angel of the virtues choir.  "They will salt the soil to bring their war."

"That sucks, but what- we're supposed to stick our necks out fighting angels, until we're both so wrecked that Hell could just roll in and fuck us?"  Marcus huffed.

"Hell is prepared to provide over 100,000 demons to serve under human command."  Sam said in a calm tone that didn't begin to capture the magnitude of the offer.

The room was silent as his words sunk in.  Almost no one on Earth had any concept of how many demons existed.  Even Dean, one of only a few humans to survive seeing Hell had been confined to dungeons the entire time.  There was no sense of scale compared to Hell, but Azazel's Army had only been in the hundreds and it had terrified every hunter in the continental United States.

"15,000 in each of North America, South America, Europe, & Africa, 40,000 in Asia, & 3,000 in Australia.”  Sam added. “ And we're prepared to increase those numbers if we deem it wise."

"15,000 demons in North America..."  Muttered Rufus.

“That’s 15,000 demons on your side.  By our estimation, Lilith has pulled at least 50,000 demons onto Earth and she still has reserves.  We’re actively working to wipe out what would be her reinforcements and we’re fighting her where we can up here, but you can’t afford to pretend that these numbers aren’t real."  Sam leaned forward to help emphasize his next point.  "I can’t spare these resources without something from you in return and without my manpower, you’ll find yourself completely overrun.”

"There are only maybe 300 hunters in the U.S."  Said Tara in concern.  She looked to the other hunters for their input, but the shock was still wearing off for many of them.

"326 as of last week, and we don't know how many are Templars."  Corrected Shola.

"You think that we'd have Templars going guerrillas on us?"  Asked Tamara.

"Why not?"  Countered Sam.

"If Templars are really so devout, would they really agree to work with demons in order to trick us?  I mean killings one thing to people like that, but working with demons-  I’m just saying how far do we expect them to go?"  Marcus said skeptically, but his voice carried slightly less venom.

"Would a hunter really agree to work with demons in order to save us?"  Anael criticized, causing Rachel & Marut to nod in agreement with the higher ranking angel.  

"You're asking us to trust demons."  Said Reggie, a hunter that Sam & Dean knew from a few years back, based out of Milwaukee.  His voice was conflicted, but Sam at least appreciated that he seemed to be seriously reflecting on the issue rather than blowing it off.

"Yes, and I'm asking demons to die protecting you."  Sam allowed his confident exterior to soften for a moment as he tried to make the hunters at the table understand what Hell was really committing to.  "We know how the numbers work out, it's going to be the demons going into the meat grinder on this."

"Riding humans."  Objected Carl.

"We’re sensitive to that issue.  The first choice will be to grab brain dead or seconds from death bodies.  All souls will be released to take their natural course."  Sam conceded.

“And the second choice?”  Asked Marcus.

“If we don’t have the days or week necessary to find free bodies… then I think a few ride-alongs are going to be the least of our worries.”

* * *

 “So, are we basically just gonna be kicking the end of the world down the road?”  Asked Reggie.  “I mean, I’m all for fighting when we can win, but if the choice is death by Heaven now or Hell later… I just don’t know.”

"Hell doesn't want Earth, destroyed or otherwise.”  Sam reassured.  “Hell wants more or less the status quo.  In fact, we're prepared to pull back on routine official activities on Earth until a sustainable situation can be created."

"You make it sound like Earth's a hunting reserve."  Jabbed Carl.

"Says a hunter."  Anael’s comment earned a subtle smile from Shola.

"Many demons feel it is."  Sam confessed.  "But that doesn't change the offer before you."

"When you say 'routine official activities' what do you mean?"  Asked Bobby.

"Crossroads will not make contracts with civilians.  Empowering of witches will be restricted to non-offensive spellcraft.  We'll cut the power to most cursed objects. And more, all subject to limitations that are consistent with the overall objective.  We have 67 different policy changes we're prepared to implement in stages, which could reduce hunter duties by up to 40%.  To the extent that you weren't engaged in the fight against our common enemies, you'd mostly be tackling non-human natives."

"Non-human natives?"  Asked Tamara.

"Vampires, werewolves, skinwalkers, etc. Who are we to call them monsters?"  Sam smiled subtly as the ambiguous 'we' hung in the air.

"You're seriously offering to neuter Hell?"  Rufus asked as he scratched his chin.

"Not neuter, just temporarily redirecting our efforts.  We can't give each other aid while stabbing each other in the back."

"You think we're going to help Hell?"  Marcus’ voice had surprisingly lost most of its hostility, but it was still uncomfortable.

"If it means stopping the apocalypse, then I'd hope so."  Sam stared at Marcus flatly without blinking for several seconds.  His centuries of practice in Hell taking command of situations was showing.  In these discussions, Sam could almost certainly outmaneuver every person at the table and he wasn’t trying to hide it.  He wanted to show that he wasn’t using tricks or subtle manipulations.  No working each person over one at a time.  They were laying their cards down on the table and gaining the benefit of trust even if it was begrudgingly gained.

"What exactly do you want from us?"

"Stand with Hell against the Templars, Heaven, & Lilith's demons under unified leadership."

"Allying with Hell against Heaven?"  Tara sighed as she tested the idea aloud.

"Heaven is in distress.  You should not think of it as pure.  It may not be a historic enemy of Earth as Hell has been, but its concern with the well being of humans is questionable at best."  Hael commented.  "There are angels prepared to stand against Heaven in defense of Earth.  We also expect that more will fall, and when they do they'll be looking for leadership."

"Let's say we do it, who's crazy enough to put their neck out on this?"  Asked Rufus.

"Heaven is already after me.”  Dean volunteered.  Sam, Bobby, Cas, & Hael already knew that he was going to pursue command if the alliance was approved.  He & Cas were starting to collect a small following of fallen angels, it made sense that once hunters were brought into the mix he would continue in a leadership position.  Despite how obvious the choice was to those who knew him, the idea raised a few eyebrows around the table.

"Aren’t you a little too close to the angels to be-"  Tamara started to object.

“Angels are not the enemy.”  Interjected Anael.  “Michael, Raphael, Zachariah- Heaven is the enemy.”

"Dean Winchester has been the most despised human by Heaven for almost four years.  The Host wishes to kill him.”  Marut offered as something akin to reassurance.  Dean tried not to roll his eyes at the angel’s attempt to vouch for him.

"Okay, you don't have a conflict of interest with Heaven, but you're still Sam's brother & rumor is you were in Hell for a few months-"  Added Marcus.

"Are you fucking kidding me?  You think I'm a fan of Hell?  You think I like this?"  Dean asked, gesturing at Sam and his accompanying demons.  He didn't want to insult Sam or even Shola, but he wanted to put it on the record that he wasn't Hell's bitch and create a little distance from Sam.  "Anyone want to guess who in this room has killed the most demons?"

"You."  Tara took the bait.

"No, Sam, by about a factor of ten.  And Cas has killed the most angels hands down.  Who they are doesn't matter compared to what they want to accomplish.  I hate Hell- personally I would like to melt the whole place down into glass.  And I have good fucking reasons to- I was tortured there for 90 years.  They tore me apart in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.  That's where my dad was tortured for 120 years.  That's where Sam’s been getting his own special sort of torture for..."  Dean looked over at Sam.  "What is it, you're coming up on 500 years?  I hate what that place has done to him...  But no matter how I feel about Hell or Sam, my priority is Earth.  If they try to make a move on Earth, I will go back down there myself and kill every last one of them."

Dean trusted Sam despite the showy threat and Sam knew it.  Sam didn’t visibly react to Dean’s impassioned speech, though Shola and every hunter in the room did a doubletake.  Cas unconsciously leaned closer to Dean, away from Sam.  The King of Hell nodded thoughtfully before responding.

“Then it’s a good thing we’re getting this contract in writing.”

* * *

 Shola opened the metal briefcase that was chained to her wrist, withdrew a stack of parchment, and handed it to Sam.  The pages weren’t uniform, but generally measured out to be the standard legal size.

"Before anyone asks, these aren’t human."  Sam said only half jokingly as he tidied the pile.  

He placed one hand on the pile and restated the terms that they had hashed out over the last few hours. As he spoke, text appeared on each piece of parchment.  When he was done he took one and passed the pile around the table.

"You can't alter the terms.”  Sam began explaining the rules of the spell.  “If you agree to this covenant, then mark your copy with a drop of blood.  In one hour, any unmarked copies will be destroyed and all marked copies will only be viewable in the willing hands of the person who marked it.  This covenant will only be active if it is agreed to by two thirds of this group."

Sam took a small black penknife out of a jacket pocket.  Without a moment’s hesitation he cut the pad of his thumb and pressed it to the bottom of his copy.

"Samuel Lucian Winchester" said Sam before picking his thumb up from the parchment.  The bloody thumbprint was absorbed by the page, then reformed as his name.  Each copy of the parchment also received his bloody signature.

There was a pause while everyone thought over the implications of agreeing to the covenant.  Dean had no real reservations about entering the contract, but he didn't want to be the first one to agree after Sam.  There needed to be a broader base of support if possible.

"I'm done hiding."  Anael said as she drew her angel blade and plucked her finger.  Pressing her finger to the page she smiled with pride.  "Anael."

"Robert Steven Singer"

"Rufus Nadim Turner"

"Castiel"

"Dean Winchester"

"Hael"

"Tamara Chikenzie"

"Daniel Petri Elkins"

"Reginald Hull"

"Timothy Marlowe Janklow"

"Tara Larsen"

“Rachel

"Marut"

“Marcus Bly Barbosa”

* * *

 “Sir.”  Shola whispered to Sam.  Everyone else had risen from their seats to leave, except for her.  She glanced down at her chair, then looked up at Sam intently.  Several of the hunters were casually making their way to the exit, but Carl seemed particularly eager to leave.  Sam leaned over and whispered for Tora to tail Carl.  When Tora disappeared, a few of the nearby hunters and angels looked at Sam curiously.

“What’s going on?”  Asked Bobby, drawing the attention of everyone left in the conference room.

“Devil’s trap.”  Sam offered a hand to Shola.  Once she took his hand, Sam flexed his free hand and the chair splintered.  He helped pull her up into a standing position, then looked around the room.  Several of the hunters seemed downright horrified by the casual display of power.  

“You know the expression ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.’  This sort of trick is disappointing, but I can forgive people for being cautious around me.  If it goes beyond this,”  Sam picked up a piece of the chair’s seat with part of a devil’s trap clearly written in chalk on it.  “then I’ll be mad.”

Before anyone could react, Tora blinked back in and said something urgently in Abyssal.  Joseba drew an angel blade and looked around.  Shola glanced at Sam in concern, then blinked away.

"Get the humans out!  Carl crossed us!"  Sam yelled to the angels.  Heal didn't hesitate.  She grabbed the three hunters closest to her while teleporting out.  Rachel & Marut looked to Cas & Aneal for guidance.

“Go!”  Cas yelled to his remaining siblings before he grabbed Dean & Bobby and teleported away.  

Anael, Marut, & Rachel each immediately grabbed groups of hunters and fled to parts unknown.  Tora & Joseba jumped directly back to Hell, but Sam popped home first to let Dean, Cas, & Bobby know he was fine.  

The next day's news coverage in San Francisco was all about a strange attack at a luxury hotel.  The third floor conference area had exploded, though no one was killed or injured in the blast.  However, the body of a man identified as Carl Holten was found pinned to the exterior wall of the same hotel.  Reports were sketchy, but the rumor was that a curved red cross was cut into his chest and a pair of wings was painted onto the wall behind him in blood.  Tora improvised the design of the warning, after all she was short on time and didn't know if angels even had sigils.

By that night, every hunter from the meeting who hadn't signed initially was on board with the alliance.  Carl’s apparent betrayal of the rest of the group to The Host had made the lot fugitives to Heaven.  Sam's people had been come off as somewhat trustworthy- or at least not wholly self-interested.  The whole thing couldn't have turned out better if Sam had planned it all himself.

* * *

1/30/2014

Per Sam & Ruby’s demands, the first time that Kaylee visited Hell she stayed deep within the Citadel.  Since they were unsure how she would react to the new plane, they decided to bring her down together.  She handled the teleportation with only minor wobbling in her knees, though the real test was how she would handle seeing demons in their true form for the first time.  Ruby insisted on riding her meatsuit down in order to avoid frightening Kaylee, but not every demon could hide inside a human- nor should they have to.  Despite the fact that they had warned her, when she saw Mir, she hid behind Sam’s legs.

“It’s okay, this is Mir.”  Sam said as he took her hand and gently led her out of hiding.  “He’s not going to hurt you, he actually wants to help you and keep you safe.”

Mir knelt down so that he was at eye level with Kaylee.  The Knight smiled with as much softness as his granite-like face could manage.  He reached into a pouch on his belt, pulled out a poorly carved stone figurine of a horse, and held it out to Kaylee.  She cautiously took the gift.

“Thank you.”  She said shyly.

“We might need to explain the nuances of Hell’s etiquette-”  Said Crowley as he entered from the doorway to the High Council’s chamber.  

“We’ve just gotten all the ‘please’ & ‘thank you’ lessons done.  We’re not gonna turn around and teach her how to be an asshole.”  Objected Ruby.

“When she visits, she’s going to stay in the Citadel- at least until she’s older.”  Sam explained to Crowley.  “Everyone can deal with her politeness until she learns to play the game.”

Kaylee became slightly more attentive at the mention of playing games.  She rocked back & forth on her toes & heels while watching the interaction between the adults.

“Fine, we’ll give the little one some thorns later on.”  Sam started to open his mouth to say something, but Crowley quickly added.  “We don’t want anyone to mistreat her.”

“I don’t have thorns.”  Kaylee hastily explained to Crowley in mild concern.  Everyone’s attention being turned to her caused her to blush with embarrassment until she had an idea for a consolation.  “I have horns.”

She took a few steps toward the Archdemon and scrunched her face in concentration.  A pair of two inch long black horns flickered into view.  Sam eyed Crowley while nervously patting her head, absentmindedly fixing the hair along her forehead that had been messed up by the horns appearing.  

“That’s wonderful, princess.”  Crowley said as he removed the blood red rose from his lapel.  He slipped the rose behind her right ear, carefully positioning it to be held in place by her horn.  “Horns are even better than thorns.”

Sam & Crowley gave Ruby & Kaylee a tour of the Citadel.  Despite having visited Hell on numerous occasions since having Kaylee, Ruby hadn’t seen more than a quarter of the Citadel.  She’d been to the throne room a few dozen times in order to talk to Sam, but largely she was downstairs to work and left as soon as she was able.  Her laboratory was second only to Morrison’s and unfortunately it was located in the same relatively isolated wing.

It was a nice change of pace to be able to explore their strange environment with two of the people who knew it best.  Crowley may have been there many millennia longer, but Sam had a natural intuition that allowed him unique insights.  Also, Sam & Ruby were pleasantly surprised how well Kaylee seemed to process the more disfigured demons and other potential sources of culture shock.

After a lengthy tour, then ended up back in the throne room.  Ruby chatted with Crowley about the logistics of having Kaylee visit going forward, while Sam made some grass & flowers for her to play in with her stone horse.  Sam watched her play, then looked over at Mir, who was also watching with a thin smile.

“Thanks for the horse.”  Sam spoke quietly, so as not to distract from the important discussions & play.  Mir nodded in acknowledgment, but he didn’t take his eyes off Kaylee.  The Knight’s expression was even more pensive than usual.  “Did you have any kids?”

Mir’s smile faded, then he nodded.

* * *

3/12/2014

The doors to the throne room burst open and Kaylee came running in, followed by a strolling Ruby.  Kaylee rushed up to Sam, who knelt down to pick her up.  Instead of accepting his invitation, she jumped up to plant a kiss on his cheek, then ran over to Mir.  Mir shrugged at Sam while Kaylee bounced next to him.

“Whatever, go have some fun.”  Sam said while waving at them.  Mir smiled down at Kaylee, then hoisted her onto his broad shoulders and began marching in whichever direction she pointed.  She led him out the primary set of double doors, on some adventure.  

“She sees you all the time.”  Ruby reassured as she patted Sam’s chest.

“I can live hundreds of years in the Abyss and seeing my daughter ditch me for some guy is the thing that makes me feel old.”

“Give her time, she’ll ditch you for a lot of guys.”  Ruby teased.  She looked around at the empty throne room.  “Where’s Shola?”

“She’s working on some contracts in Beijing.  We might have an in with a massive hunter network there.  She took Joseba & Meili-”  Sam glanced around the hall, then grinned.  “Actually, now that we have a few minutes to ourselves.  I want to try something.” 

Sam took Ruby’s hand and guided her over to the Seat.  He sat down and she watched the tree change.  The look of wonder on her face never ceased to delight him.  It reminded him of the night they fell asleep below the shooting stars.

“You trust me?”  Sam asked.

“Only for the last five years.”  
  
Sam motioned for her to come closer.  When she was right in front of him, he turned her to face the hall. He placed his hands on her waist and guided her down to sit on his lap.  Once she was stable, he rested his arms on the armrests.  She placed her hands atop his.  She was sitting on the Seat of Hell, with just Sam protecting her from its intensity.  He felt the rush from the Seat increase and almost pass through him.

“This is incredible.”  She whispered.  Her head leaned back and rested on his right shoulder.  He could see her chest heaving as she took exhilarated breaths.  
  
 Sam waved his hand, closing & locking all the doors to the hall, then leaned forward to kiss the side of her neck.  Her hands let go of his and reached backwards to hook onto his neck.  His left hand slid up her shirt, then cupped her breast.  His right hand slid down, unbuttoned her jeans, and reached into her panties.  He started playing with her.  She groaned and arched her back, but he held her to him, safely apart from the throne.

The combination of Ruby’s pleasure and the mildly intoxicating power of the throne was making him hard.  He moved Ruby further down on his lap for just long enough to push his jacket to the side and undo his pants.  For her part, Ruby started wriggling her jeans & panties down too.  He quickly pulled her back to him and push deep into her.  
  
 She rocked her hips forward & backward as he played with her.  Sam had never felt anything like it.  It was like he was giving her the pure power that he felt through the throne.  It was frantic & primal, a blur of pleasure.  Ruby’s moans echoed in the hall and he gripped her tight as they came together.  
  
 "It’s good to be the king.“  Ruby panted.

* * *

After Kaylee finished exploring with Mir, Sam took her home by himself.  While pulling her pants back on, Ruby had had an epiphany regarding the composition of a new weapon against angels.  She had given Sam a kiss then run off mentioning something about the nature of flight.  Sam barely heard her, he was still flush from some of the best sex of his life and could only really process that for the second time in a few hours he’d been ditched.

He didn’t actually mind Ruby tossing him domestic duty.  Time at home with the kids was something he treasured.  Tom was on a camping trip with Bobby, Isa, & four of the other kids.  So Sam & Kaylee got to enjoy some father-daughter time.  Sam even indulged Kaylee with a tea party- something that Ruby would only ever concede to after the most dire of tantrums.  

It was the next day before Ruby returned from Hell.  She found Sam & Kaylee snuggled up on the couch while Sam was reading Paradise Lost aloud.  He got to a stopping point, then placed a bookmark between the pages.  After Sam was done reading Kaylee ran over to Ruby to claim an overdue hug.

"Sam, we need to talk.”  Ruby said meaningfully before looking down at Kaylee.  "Hey starlight, can you go play with the other kids for a few minutes?“

Once Kaylee was gone, Ruby walked up to stand right in front of Sam.  She took his hand and put it on her abdomen.  
  
 "I think we’ve got a souvenir,”  she moved his hand slightly so he could feel the small bump.  "from the throne room.“  
  
 "You think you’re pregnant- that was yesterday!”  Sam ran his fingers through his hair.

“I’ve been working downside for about ten weeks.”  She crossed her arms in front of her chest, a little peeved that the amount of work she’d just put in had gone underappreciated.

“I thought we were using that contraceptive spell?”  

“We are- or were.  It’s actually a self-inflicted hex.  After I got suspicious about the bump I checked out the throne room.  There are protection wards all over the Seat, among other things you have one that knocks out hexes & curses.”

“I can’t believe this… Again?  How does this keep happening to us?”    
  
His question was rhetorical, he knew exactly how it happened.  They had a fairly active sex life combined with limited information about their physiological compatibility, and contraceptive method that hadn’t exactly gone through rigorous trials.  There weren’t any warning labels suggesting that Ruby should probably stay away from magical anti-hexing trees.  As much as the magic came in handy, Sam had to admit that it had its drawbacks too.

“We could keep it.”  Ruby floated the idea as she wrapped her arms around Sam’s neck and massaged his nape with her thumbs. “We’ve been more or less stable for four years.”

“The world’s going to shit.  Is it really right to bring another kid into this mess?”  Sam sighed through a sad smile.  He’d seen a lot in the four and a half years since they decided to have Kaylee.  If pressed, he’d confess that he didn’t have any regrets about that decision.  Yet, having another kid was a little daunting in light of the things he’d been seeing coming through the gates downstairs as of late.

“The world’s always going to shit.”  Ruby pushed a lock of hair behind one of his ears.  "You’re just too young to know that.  You had a shit environment to grow up in, so did I.  I think it’s less about whether the world is ready and more whether we’re ready.“

"You want to have it?”

“I like our kids and they make you happier than anything else.  Call me selfish, yeah, I kinda want to have another kid.”  She shrugged playfully.

“You wanting me to be happy is very selfish.”  Sam wrapped his arms around her thighs, hugging her midsection.  He rested his right cheek against her stomach, thought for a moment, then leaned back.  His expression was troubled.

“What do you want to bet the kid’s the antichrist?”  Sam touched her abdomen again and the corner of his mouth curled downward.  The fact that they’d both been a little high on some really dark magic while having sex… knowing his luck, that sort of thing was bound to bite them later.  She tilted his chin up so that he was looking into her eyes.

“Isn’t there some bullshit going through the wires about you being the antichrist?  People call you the devil- our daughter’s an abomination- Hell & damnation- blah, blah, blah.  I don’t really give a fuck.  You’re a good man, doing the best you can to save the world.  And, I don’t like to brag, but our kids are pretty awesome too.”

“We’re idiots.”  He kissed her tiny belly.

“Nobody’s arguing with that.” 

* * *

7/14/14

“The kids need to learn how to fight.”  

Dean had been pressing the issue ever since the whole Sumrall fiasco.  With Heaven using such broadspread force, there were too many unpleasant what if’s.  

“They’re kids and it’s safe here, why can’t we give them more time to be young?”  

Sam knew that the world was coming apart at its hinges just as well as the next guy- better in fact, but the idea of the kids fighting terrified him.  He’d grown up combat trained and like a self fulfilling prophecy, that existence had consumed more than half of his life.  Since retaking the Pits from Lilith, he hadn’t really gotten his hands dirty.  There were a few exceptions, but generally he considered his life peaceful and that’s what he wanted for his kids.

“I get that, better than almost anyone, but the world is getting scary, fast.”  Dean continued his pitch.  “We’re out there seeing it fall apart.  I don’t want the kids to be dragged into something and not know how to handle it.”

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.  He knew this was coming.  The kids were getting older and the world would begin stripping away their innocence.  Starting to take Kaylee downstairs had been his first concession, but she was still safely hidden away from Hell’s true nature.  Soon she’d start learning about death, torture, & evil.  Tom would expand his knowledge of the craft to include offensive spells, and he’d probably start asking to go hunts with uncle Dean.

“I don’t want them to be hunters or soldiers. I don’t want them to be like us.”

“We might not get that luxury.”  Ruby said as she put a hand on Sam’s thigh.  He looked over at her.  She was seated beside him on their not quite long enough couch.  Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail.  She wore a crimson maternity blouse with silver embroidery.  Tom & Kaylee both had been thrilled at the prospect of getting a little brother, but just a few weeks shy of his arrival Sam was getting worried.

“They’ll never be down the line soldiers or hunters.”  Dean added.  “But they should be capable of fighting & leading.”

“I don’t want to raise my kids to kill.”

“It’s better than raising them to die.”

* * *

 

9/02/14

“Hey cutie.  Welcome to the world.”  Ruby greeted her son with a fatigued smile.

Sam sat on the bed next to her and held their son so that she could see him.  The newborn had dark brown hair & eyes that were reminiscent of Ruby’s meatsuit.  He was a little smaller than Kaylee had been, but he wriggled around more.

“What’s his name gonna be?”  Dean asked as he ventured into Sam & Ruby’s bedroom.  He’d been helping Bobby & Isa distract Kaylee & Tom during the labor, while periodically peeking in to see how it was going.  He arrived in time for the final few pushes and Cas handing off his nephew to Sam.  

“Alex- Alexander.”  Sam answered without looking up from his son.

“It was that or Mephistopheles.”  Ruby joked weakly.

“I know we’re all on the same team now, but please don’t name your kid after a demon.”  Dean wasn’t exactly concerned about it, but it didn’t hurt to go on the record with that sort of thing.

“Hey, don’t shit on our culture.”  Ruby said halfheartedly.  “We’re older than every civilization on Earth.”

“There are enough angels living on Earth at this point to make that statement questionable.”  Cas countered as he moved to stand beside Dean, who was leaning against a dresser.  

“She wasn’t serious.”  Sam assured, but Ruby shrugged.  She grabbed Sam’s shirt and pulled him closer to her, claiming a kiss before returning her attention to Alex.  The two of them started discussing the resemblances between their biological children, then Ruby started inspecting Alex for quali.

“How are you?”  Cas whispered to Dean while Sam & Ruby were distracted.  He covertly intertwined his fingers with Dean’s.

“I’m happy for them.”  Dean replied, but he couldn’t will himself to say anything more on the subject.  Cas gently squeezed his husband’s hand in a silent gesture of sympathy.  The smile on Dean’s face dimmed slightly, but he quickly recovered.  “You two ready for Tom & Kaylee to meet him?”

* * *

Sam & Dean walked into Bobby’s cabin, catching the attention of the old hunter & his two adopted grandkids.  The adolescent Tom immediately looked to Sam’s expression for any insight into how Ruby & the baby were doing, but relaxed when he saw his dad’s beaming face.  Sam knelt down next to Kaylee, who was playing with some dolls on the floor.

“Are you ready to meet your little brother?”  Sam spoke to both of his kids, but directed his attention toward Kaylee.  Tom had years of experience being an older sibling, but Kaylee had never even met a child younger than herself.  Kaylee looked around uncertainly.

“It’s great having a little brother.”  Dean assured his niece while sparing a grin for Sam.  

“Yeah, it’s a lot of fun-”  Tom agreed.

“I’m a sister.”  Kaylee told Tom a bit indignantly.

“There’s no difference between boys & girls-”  Tom began.

“Uh, well- that’s a whole different conversation.”  Sam hadn’t yet attempted explaining sexes to the four year old.

“Come on,”  Tom offered Kaylee his hand, which she accepted.  “Let’s go say hi.”

The adults allowed Tom to take the lead in guiding Kaylee back to their cabin.  It seemed important to let them fully engage in the relationship with Alex, rather than merely observing.  Tom had started helping take care of Kaylee back when she was only a few days old and they ended up being incredibly close.  Kaylee hesitated at her parents’ bedroom door, but quietly followed Tom over to the edge of the bed where Ruby was hold Alex.  She climbed up onto the bed, then knelt next to her mom.  

“Hi.”  Kaylee spoke to Alex, then waited for something to happen.

“He’s too little to talk, but he’ll get bigger and be able to do all sorts of things.”  Ruby said while angling the sleeping Alex so that Kaylee could get a better look at him.

“What things?”  Kaylee studied the baby.

“All the normal people stuff- talking, playing…”  Sam tried to explain.

Kaylee nodded, then blinked her eyes black and stared at Alex.  She started to extend her hand towards him, but decided against it.  After a moment her brow furrowed and she looked at Tom before looking back to Alex.

“He’s not human.”  Kaylee observed with some confusion.  “Brothers are human.”

“I’m human, but not all brothers are human.”  Tom tried to explain, but he wasn’t sure she was old enough to understand the distinction.  Kaylee looked between Dean & her dad with her eyes still black.  Sam could see her processing the fact that Dean & him were brothers and he wondered how human he actually appeared to her demonic eyes.

“Cas has a ton of brothers and they’re all angels.”  Dean oversimplified, but Cas didn’t attempt a nuanced correction during the delicate time.

“Alex is like you- he’s part demon.”  Ruby cut to the chase, which seemed to satisfy Kaylee..

“Does he have wings?”  Kaylee looked back to Alex thoughtfully.

“Probably, but not yet.”

“Does he have horns?”

“We probably won’t know that kind of stuff for awhile, starlight.”  Ruby tried to stave off even more questions.  “You didn’t get your wings until you turned four.”

“When he has wings I can help him.”  Kaylee suggested, earning a thankfully unseen nervous smile from Sam.  Then she looked to Tom.  “What do I do now?”

“Well, there’s a lot of stuff that Alex is gonna need to learn.”  Tom explained as the adults listened to see if there was anything they should add to his insights.  “So, we’re gonna help him and teach him and be very patient with him.  It’s hard work growing up- But the most important thing to remember is that even though he doesn’t know how to talk yet, he wants to be your friend.”

“He wants to be my friend?”  Kaylee stared hopefully at her little brother.

“Yeah, because he knows you’re really cool.”  Tom said as Sam patted his back.

“He’s smart.”  Kaylee nodded with approval.

* * *

9/04/14

“Alright, line your fist up with your arm like this.  That’ll deliver more power.”

Dean finished correcting Tom’s posture, then offered his palms as targets.  The boy swung and connected with his right arm.

“Tom, you gotta loosen up a bit more.”  Ruby suggested from her seat on the porch.  She handed off the newborn Alex to Sam, who smiled as he watched her descend the few steps to the clearing where Dean & Bobby were giving the three oldest children basic instructions in hand-to-hand combat.  The little audience cleared some space for her as she approached Dean.   She stretched a bit as she walked, which made Dean & Bobby exchange a glance.

“You looking to help with the demonstration?”  Asked Bobby.

“Yeah.”  She responded.  Bobby nodded in approval, while Dean looked over at his two day old nephew.

“Uh, Rube.  You sure you should be roughhousing?”  Dean asked quietly.

“Cas put my meatsuit back in order.  I’m good to go, and I haven’t had a nice brawl in almost a year.”

“Yeah, well…”  Dean chose his words carefully.  "You might need some warming up before you jump into a brawl.“

"Kick his ass!”  Yelled Sam with a grin.  Dean scowled at Sam, then looked at Bobby.  The older hunter shrugged and started motioning the children to give Dean & Ruby some space.

“I’m not going to hit you in front of the kids.”  Dean held up his hands in forfeit.

“Damn straight you aren’t.”  Ruby teased.

“I’m serious.”  Dean looked at the children.

“It’s just sparring.  How’re they supposed to learn how to fight if they’ve never seen one before?”  Dean dropped his hands in concession to Ruby’s point.

“Kaylee’s with Belda, right?”  He asked while checking his surroundings.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“She’s about that age- I just don’t want her first long term memory to be me punching her mom in the face.”  

“Get him in the lower ribs.  He hates-”  Sam started to advise Ruby.

“For fuck’s sake, Sam, don’t help her.”  Dean threw Sam a what-the-fuck face.  He was regretting inviting them to sit in on the little lesson.

“Sorry man, I picked my side.”  Sam held up his son.

“Enjoy your baby time because after this, it’s gonna be you & me.  No powers- I saw you in Sumrall.  You barely know how to hold a gun anymore, I want to see if you can still figure out how to even make a fist.”  Dean jabbed.  

Sam flipped Dean off, then shrugged.

“Is this about right?”

* * *

Before the started their little sparring match, Ruby turned to the three children watching them.  She wanted to make sure that the situation wasn’t going to be misunderstood.  There was a lot of playful teasing around the camp, but the truth was that all the animosity between her & Dean had been dead & buried for years.  

“Dean & I aren’t mad at each other.  We’re just going to show you what a fight looks like, okay?”  She explained.  “Keep an eye on how fluid the motions are and how we’re going to be using the whole body whenever possible.”

“Well shit, how do we start this?  I feel like we should bow or ring a bell.”  Dean looked at Bobby, who shrugged.

“What?  Do I look like referee?”  Said Bobby.

“Want me to just start?”  Ruby offered.

“Sure?”

Ruby ran at Dean, but dodged to her left at the last second in order to avoid his punch.  Sliding downward, she punched him hard in the abdomen.  He tipped slightly forward from the impact, but had the foresight to sweep her legs as she passed by him on his right.  Knocked from her feet, she managed to turn her fall into a feeble somersault, ending with her in a kneeling position.

Dean watched, a little impressed by the save, but quickly charged her.  As she turned to see him about ready to tackle her, she blinked out of his way.  Dean hit the ground and rolled several feet through the dirt.

“That’s cheating!”  Dean shouted as he got up and swung a few times at Ruby.

“Sometimes demons cheat.”  She replied while dodging a punch.

“That’s a lesson kids: sometimes people cheat at fights.”  Added Bobby to emphasize the point.  “If you can do it yourself, you might as well.”

She landed a knee to his ribs, but the turning motion left most of her torso exposed.  Dean swung at the opportunity and punched her in the breast.  She staggered from the painful impact.  He was about to apologize, but instead had to dodge a high kick meant for his chest.  

Ruby dipped, then swung upward connecting with his jaw.  After shaking off the hit, Dean went on the offensive.  As she struggled to back away from his swings, he took advantage of his longer stride by lunging forward.  Making good on his prediction, Dean landed a punch to her face.  In annoyed retaliation, she poked at his lower ribs.  He recoiled slightly, but instead of backing off he immediately came at her again.

Dean moved up on Ruby’s right side and kneed her in the abdomen.  She hunched forward, but as she did so, she grabbed Dean’s raised knee, then threw all of her weight at him.  With only one foot on the ground, Dean lost his balance.  He fell backwards, hitting the dirt hard, with Ruby falling elbow first onto his torso.  She rolled off of him, but didn’t bother getting up.

They were both laying on the ground panting.  Dean poked a finger inside his mouth to make sure all his teeth were in the right spots.  Ruby touched her nose, which throbbed and started dripping blood.  She looked around, then gently tapped Dean with the toe of her boot.

“Where’s Cas at?”  She asked Dean.

“He’s visiting one of his sisters.”  Dean sighed then covered his face with his hand in embarrassment.  "Anael’s off the grid… Cas said he wouldn’t be home until tomorrow.“

"Fuck.”

“That’s another lesson, kids,”  Bobby added as he offered a hand up to both Dean & Ruby.  "Don’t go into fights half-cocked.“ 


	7. 2015

1/15/15

Ruby peeked into Alex’s nursery.  He was in his firetruck footie pajamas.  His pacifier had fallen out of his mouth and the little trail of drool running down his cheek made him look even more like Sam.  Except for the stubby black horn nubs sticking out through his dark brown hair.  She couldn’t exactly take sole credit for the kids’ quali, but it wasn’t all Sam’s fault either.  She watched him sleep for a few minutes before finally heading to her bedroom.

It had been a long trip downstairs- 36 hours Earth time or 6 months Hell time.  Despite normally running down every other day for at least a few hours at a time, she still wasn’t used to being away from home so much.  Unfortunately, work demanded it.

They were testing out some anti-angel area of effect spells based on an augmented anti-demon spell.  The idea of the experiment was to find out whether demonic forms of flight such as smoking out or teleporting operated on the same principles as angelic flight.  If so, with some minor adjustments several of the weapons that had been developed to fight Lilith’s army could be adopted in the fight against Heaven.

Of course, that’s how it should’ve gone, but there had been an accident.  Three of the Maji working on the spells were destroyed in the blast and several blocks of Central had been hit with fallout.  Aside from the initial blast, it wasn’t fatal, but a few thousand demons had temporarily had their powers suppressed.  Ruby ran the cleanup effort, but the blast knocked a lot of the effect upward leading to some unforeseen complications.

Sam had been in Hell during the initial drama to provide some sense of leadership for the community, but once the politics were taken care of he returned home to take care of the kids while Ruby worked.  She found him in bed, reading The Bardo Thodol.  He finished making a little note in the margin before smiling up at her.

“How’d it go?”  

“We’ve got the situation mostly contained, but I think that some of the carnage may have escaped through the Howling Gate.  We’re not entirely sure where that gate comes out- Morrison is guessing somewhere in North America or the Indian Ocean.  I know, I know, that’s a whole lot of unknowns.”  She took off her jacket and jewelry.  "It shouldn’t be a problem as long as we can locate it in the next few days- Earth time.  Then all we need to do is use some heavy duty purging spells and no one’s the wiser.“

"Are you sure that you guys are going to be able to find it?  I could move over some grunts to help you look.”

“This type of juice we can sniff out from miles off.  I’ve got people making the rounds already.”  She pulled off her boots.  "If we don’t find anything within the next 48 hours, then we’ll call in the cavalry.  In the meantime, there’s no point pulling apart Dean’s little army.  I’m sure he needs all the stability he can get.“

"I feel like the hunters & angels wouldn’t mind us pulling back some of our people.”  Sam stretched in bed and the sheets slid down a little, uncovering his chest.  "We’ve only sent up a quarter of our obligation and there’ve been over a dozen fights.“

"Any idea if we’re starting them?”  Ruby asked as she stripped down to her panties, then slipped a soft t-shirt on over her bare breasts.  

“It almost always depends on who you ask.  Of course none of ours want to confess to anything that might be mistaken for defying orders, and the humans & angels-”

“Let me guess, spending five minutes with one of us is justification enough to start a fight?”

“You got it in one.”  He tapped a finger to the tip of his nose.  She climbed into the bed and curled up beside Sam.  She traced the edges of the tattoos on his chest with her finger.

“Can’t we just make them all do some trust fall exercises or something and call it a day?”  She mused.

“I think you’ve solved this thing.”  Sam kissed the top of her head.  He took a moment to summon his courage, then threw caution into the wind.  "Do you want to get married?“

He wore his simple silver ring nearly every day, only taking it off when working with non-demons that he wasn’t close to.  It gave him an extra level of comfort, a tangible reminder of his personal sanctuary in the great Abyss.  Despite his preference to wear it frequently, Sam noticed that Ruby only wore hers when she was feeling particularly sentimental.

"What do you mean?”  Ruby propped herself up on an elbow so that she could read his facial expressions.  "Like Dean & Cas?  …cause I’m not sure they got a certificate or anything.“

"I don’t know.”  His brow furrowed at the realization that he wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking her.  "I mean, it’s not about paperwork.  I love you and we have a family.“

"Isn’t that enough?”  She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I just- you’re more than a girlfriend to me.  I don’t know how to explain you to people that does you justice.”

“How many people do you have to explain me to?”  She wasn’t trying to be snarky, she was just trying to figure out what he was getting at.

“I didn’t mean it like that… I’m just proud of us and you- I wish I could make it official.  I want to have this word or concept that I could just hold up and everyone would understand what you mean to me.”

She nodded in acknowledgement of his feelings.  They’d gone for six years without labeling what they had between them.  Since finding out about the first pregnancy they’d both silently expected some long term commitment, though once or twice Sam had feared she would leave him.  After seeing that Ruby had stuck with him through becoming King of Hell, adopting one son, & choosing to have another, he wasn’t as concerned with her just up & leaving someday.  

But he wanted more.  He had his job and kids, now he wanted his wife- who would be exactly the same person as before, but with new labeling.  She’d had to work harder than anyone else realized in order to earn her rank within the Maji caste.  She wasn’t the second in command through nepotism.  Her incorporation of spellcraft and combat skills had brought their entire army to the next level.  Combative Magics Research and Development was her other baby, the one that got cast in a shadow every time her personal life came up.  Sam was bogged down in the politics and taking up a label just sounded like asking for her to be sucked deeper into that world.

“I don’t want to be the Queen of Hell.  I don’t want to be known primarily as your wife or the kids’ mom.”  She caressed his cheek.  "I’m not ashamed or scared of the association, but I’ve worked hard to make my own contributions… I don’t want my accomplishments to be drowned out by my personal life- by some word or concept that defines me by you.“

"I guess I can understand that.”  He’d lost his smile, but he drew her hand up to his lips and kissed it.

“It doesn’t mean that I’m not committed to you & the kids.”  She rolled so that she was half on top of him, looking down into his eyes.

“I know you’re in this for the long haul.”  He reassured, then pulled her down into a kiss.  After a moment she broke the kiss & grinned at him.

“I mean, you barely age anymore and you’re king of my plane- I think I’m kinda stuck with you.”  Her voice teased, but she also teased him physically by rubbing her hip against his crotch.  "Here I was thinking I could make you my fuck toy and run, but you had to go messing that up.“

"Ha ha.”  Sam said sarcastically.  He closed his eyes briefly with pleasure from Ruby’s gentle grinding, then regained some focus.  "Fair warning: the Council might start bugging you about it.“

"Don’t the Arches have anything better to do?  First they’re all about kids, now they want a wedding- do they own a fucking tabloid?”

“They think it’d be good for stability or morale or something.”

“When did Hell start giving a fuck about morale?  Things feel very backward.”

“These are crazy times.”  Sam drew her into another kiss.  She ground harder as one of his hands slid up her shirt.  With a flick of his wrist the bedroom door locked.  A sly grin spread across her face as she pulled his boxers off.

* * *

6/7/2015

Tom tried to open the cabin door as quietly as possible, but it didn’t matter. Sam was waiting for them. He was sitting on the armrest of the couch with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Dean barely got a foot in the door before he saw Sam and knew they’d been caught.

“Tom, go to your room.” Sam’s voice was completely neutral with Tom, but his tone turned colder when he looked to Dean. "Dean, we need to talk, outside.“

Dean patted Tom on the back, then turned to go back outside. Sam followed him out, closing the door behind them. They walked a few yards away from the cabin to talk in the relative privacy of the moonlit clearing.

"Look before you start complain-” Dean didn’t get through his sentence before he was completely blindsided by a punch to the face. He staggered backward, then touched his left cheekbone. "Fuck, Sam!“

"You went on a fucking hunt!” Sam’s body was tense, holding back another punch. Dean offset his footing, readying himself for an actual fistfight, but he held his hands up in forfeit.

“Yeah, okay. We went on a hunt. It was just a salt & burn.” Dean said in his defense. "He’s been begging to go for years-“

"And you just take him, without talking to me?”

“There’s been plenty of talking, but you aren’t hearing it.”

“So fucking convince me. You don’t just lie to me.” Sam ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "You said you were going to take him to Chicago. We had no idea where you two were.“

After a little finagling, Sam had managed to rework his schedule so that he could join Dean & Tom for the weekend outing, but they hadn’t checked into the motel that Dean claimed they were at an hour earlier. When Sam called Dean for a second time it went straight to voicemail. A few hours later Dean sent some vague text about the Blackhawks’ arena having bad reception, but there wasn’t a game that day. A few pulled strings revealed that Dean hadn’t been in Chicago for at least a month. Sam had tried to contact Cas to help locate them, but the angel was unreachable at Hael’s. He had no choice, but to wait for them to come home.

"He was safe- nothing was gonna happen to him.” Dean countered, but that just frustrated Sam even more.

It was one thing to put Tom in a situation that was potentially dangerous- Sam hated the thought of it, but he knew deep down that it was impossible to keep the kids safe all the time. The thing that really pissed him off was something that didn’t seem to even be registering with Dean.

“You lied to me!” Sam wanted to yell, but he managed to keep the volume down, if not the tension in his voice. "You lied to me right in front of him.“

"Sammy, c'mon. It’s not-”

“Don’t you get it? He lied to me too. Now it’s okay to run around behind my back.”

For six years nothing had come between Sam & Tom, but now their ironclad relationship had been pierced. A new precedent had been established. Tom had backed Dean on the false story, betraying his dad’s trust. Sam didn’t blame the kid, he was just following Dean’s lead.

“He wouldn’t need to be running around if you listened to what he wants.” Dean responded, completely missing the point.

“He’s twelve, he doesn’t know what he wants.”

“And he isn’t gonna learn by you keep him cooped up.” Dean stood a little taller, confident in his moral high ground… though he may not have fully thought through his implementation.

“There’s a difference between experimenting and going after a ghost.”

“We were helping on hunts when we were his age-” Dean tried to reframe the outing.

“No.” Sam cut Dean off. "He can learn to shoot. He can learn to fight. He can learn to cast- but I don’t want him going on hunts. He’s not going to be a hunter. He’s not going to be like us.“

"I’d want my kid to-” Dean started.

“He’s not your kid!”

Dean scowled a little at the comment. Sam’s words hurt more than he would’ve expected. He loved the kids and being there for them was one of the things that made him truly happy. Rationally, he knew that they weren’t his kids. It just wasn’t in the cards for him & Cas to have kids… meanwhile Sam had stumbled into having three. It was a more sensitive subject than he would’ve ever admitted.

“Well technically he’s not yours ei-” If he’d been thinking a bit clearer he wouldn’t have tried for such a low blow. He didn’t get the chance to finish.

Sam telekinetically hit Dean across his entire body, knocking him back into the dirt. By the time Dean collected himself enough to get up, Sam was back in his cabin. Then Dean heard something he’d never heard before, the sound of the cabin door locking.

* * *

10/20/2015

A high ranking courier entered the great hall at a pace that Sam found alarming.  The demon glanced around the hall as zie approached, quickly assessing who might overhear the news.  Zie stopped a little closer to Sam than usual and spoke at a loud whisper.

“Sir, we have a situation.  Jieshi has been imprisoned for desertion.”

Jieshi was one of the heroes of the civil war against Lilith.  She had been an inspirational figure, having led dozens of assaults on heavily fortified dungeons in the Lower Pits.  At least 10% of their victories in Lower were attributed to her leadership, grasp of field tactics, & personal skill in combat.

“Jieshi?  Imprisoned by us?”  Sam raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, sir.  Just an hour ago.”

“So what, she slipped a gate to go topside?”

“No… Actually, she had been assigned to Earth.  She came back down.”

* * *

Jieshi didn’t look like Sam remembered her.  He’d met her long ago when she had visited the Citadel to report on several successful campaigns in the Lower Pits.  Back then she had been fierce, nearly eight feet of chiseled obsidian with talons to spare, but she had since wilted.  Scars marked her shell, but they weren’t new- they were ancient, brought to the surface for some reason.  She stood before him at silent attention.

“What happened?”  Sam asked.

“I couldn’t…  I can’t be up there.”  He could sense her trembling below the surface.

“Why?”

“It’s not right up there.”  She struggled to find the right words.  "I can’t function in that place.“

"Are you having trouble with our allies?”

“The angels are tight asses and the humans are all complete idiots- there are more than a few dozen people I’d like to drip dry-”

“But you’ve been working with people you hate for as long as you’ve been in Hell.”  Sam mused.  Jieshi nodded in thoughtful concession.

“Yeah… I don’t think that’s it… I just… I don’t know.”  Anguish started blooming in her broken soul.

“When did you die?”

“The emperor was Wen and the dynasty was Han…”  She tried to figure out how to translate it for someone with a western background.  "2nd century BCE.“

"Was this your first time going back?”

“…Yes.”  She had hesitated, but it wasn’t because she was trying to hide her guilt, she was trying to hide her shame.

“Everyone else, out.”  He ordered.  His three assistants and even Mir left the room, closing the doors behind them.  Jieshi tried to maintain some dignity, but he could sense her uncertainty.  "I’m not going to kill you.“

"Why not?”

“For starters, you’re one of the best soldiers we have.  But mostly, I don’t think that deserting was your fault.”  Sam sighed and leaned back in his seat.  "Ever since I got down here, I’ve been wondering why this place should even exists- Not why it exists, we can all thank Lucifer for that.  Whether you feel inclined to, I couldn’t care less.“

Her eyes widened at his candid indifference to the glory of Lucifer, but he continued without elaborating.

"As best I can figure, Hell is a prison.  The question is why & how should we punish.  I’ve read your file,”  He tapped his right index finger on a scroll he was holding.  "I know you’re a thief and a murderer- though there was an annotation that your first killing was in self-defense.“

"Like that matters.”  She muttered.

“You’re right, mostly it doesn’t.  Had I been in charge when you were brought in, maybe I would’ve sent you to a softer dungeon- like there’s a difference in the long term…  I don’t know.  But it’s too late now, you’ve been run through the ringer and now what am I supposed to do with you?  Am I supposed to make you suffer more?”  Sam looked around the hall contemplating their surroundings.  "Like I said, this place is a prison, but there are many theories of why prisons should exist.  Some people think it’s to exact righteous punishment, some think it’s to deter future offenders, others think it’s to remove the dangerous elements from the general population, & some people… they think it’s to rehabilitate.“

"Are you gonna try to save our souls?”  She laughed, but her amusement was tinged with sadness.

“No.  We’re not in the business of saving souls.  But I’d always like to see you become something more than a completely wasted opportunity- the only surviving record of your life is pain & death.”  Sam held up the scroll containing her intake records.  "If that’s the only legacy in your afterlife too… then I’m not sure why any of us even get out of bed in the morning.“

He knew that he wasn’t going to make demons altruists, but he wasn’t prepared to dismiss their entire species as a lost cause.  By committing many of them to the fight on Earth he had hoped to give them something that had been denied to them far too long.  Those demons had a responsibility, to represent their people with some level of professionalism.  

He wasn’t expecting them to say please & thank you, but each one was representing Hell to numerous factions who assumed they were the lowest sort of scum.  So far, most of the demons had reveled in proving the humans & angels wrong.  Spite might not be the most sincere foundation to a cultural revolution, but it was a start.

"You’ve got a big fucking mountain to climb.”  A smile flickered on her lips.

“Then it’s a good thing I have all the time in the world.”  Sam absently tapped the scroll on the armrest of his throne before getting to the heart of the matter.  "You’ve become institutionalized and that’s a disservice to us both.“

"Sir, I… I…”  She would’ve blushed if she’d had skin.

“Don’t try to deny it, I can read you.  Anyway, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last.”  Sam’s tone softened.  "Is it the changes since the last time you were on Earth?  Do you feel exposed or in danger up there?“

"It’s not that I’m scared- I could’ve been destroyed so many times, even without going topside…  The changes are… unnerving, but I can try to avoid the cities.”

“So, what’s bothering you the most up there?”

“I don’t know what to do when I’m not following orders.  The other demons like to screw around, you know  'raise a little Hell’, but I just… I just wait.  I can’t even move sometimes.  I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t know how to cope with the freedom.”  Sam suggested.  Her shame flared and she nodded.  "I don’t want to pull you from the field, it’d be a tragedy.  You’ll go back, but I’m gonna have you assigned to an angel.  If there’s anyone who can help you learn to embrace personal freedom it’s one of them.“

“An angel?  You can’t-”  She started, but was cut off.

“You’re going to give it another shot.  Four months Earth time, as a direct report to an angel.  If you feel like you haven’t improved, then you can come back down and train new demons for combat.”  They both knew that was a waste of her talents.  He just hoped that having that as her alternative would provide some extra motivation.  “Report topside and check in with my brother.  He’ll get you in touch with your angel.”

“Sir, with respect, you’re gonna piss off whichever angel you force me on.”

“Don’t worry about that.  Anael owes me a favor.”


	8. 2016

Scenes to come


	9. 2017

4/08/2017

Hael teleported into the clearing between the cabins.  She spotted Dean sitting on the floor of Sam & Ruby's porch.  He was doing some repair work on the arm rail.  A pile of partially burnt wooden beams had been discarded next to the steps.  She walked up to Dean.

"How's it going Hael?"  Dean asked without getting up.

"Hello Dean.  Everything is fine, I just wish to ask my brother for some advice.  Where's Castiel?"  

"I'm not sure."  Dean answered, but clenched his jaw and evaded Hael's gaze.

"Is something wrong?"

"There's trouble in paradise."  Sam said as he collected an armful of charred wood to relocate to a kindling pile.

"Cas & I had a fight.  It's not a big deal."  Dean said as he finished sanding an edge on the arm rail.  He blew off the sawdust and leaned back against a support beam.

"What was the disagreement about?"  Dean ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes briefly before answering.

"Cas thinks I should have a kid before I'm too old."  He was almost forty.  Silver peppered his hair, though it wasn't obvious from far away.  His face still had a beauty to it, but when he was tired, lines of rough years were visible.  Cas had recently started subtly healing Dean while he slept, trying to fight the normal aging process, but they hadn't been at it long enough to tell how effective the plan might be.

"And you do not want to have children?"  Asked Hael uncertainly as she took a seat on the porch beside Dean.

"It's not that, I just... I don't want to cheat on Cas- that's not the right way to say it...  I know it's silly, but if he can't have a kid, then I don't know..."  He looked around to see if anyone else was in earshot.  Sam & Bobby were teaching Kaylee some of the basics of power tools over at Bobby’s.  Ruby & Tom were starting Alex out on Magic 101.  The boy needed to learn some control or else they’d have another burnt up porch to replace.

"It's my understanding that human male same sex couples routinely have one partner be a biological parent."

"That's true, but just because it's normal doesn't mean it solves the problem... I know I'm being stubborn."  He sighed, then looked up at the slightly cloudy sky.  It would start getting dark soon and there was too much left to do.  Reluctantly he started packing up his toolbox.

"You want to have a child that is technically the offspring of you & Castiel?"

"I know how insane that is..."  He was embarrassed by how childish he'd been.  Cas was just trying to make him happy and he'd turned it into a fight because he was being stubborn.  After a long pause, Hael said something that completely derailed his self-loathing.

"He could use this vessel."

"What?"

"Castiel & I are from similar enough choirs that we shouldn't damage each other's vessels.  I believe that I could temporarily exchange vessels with Castiel.  You two could try to conceive.  My vessel would not be perfectly compatible for him, but it should still function in many respects."  Dean was a little taken aback by her generous offer.

"That's nice of you..."  Dean was not entirely sure the full implications of what she was offering.  "but he's still an angel."

"It's..."  She looked a little uncomfortable with the topic.  "technically possible for angels & humans to breed... it's just a blaspheme."

"You're serious."  He was dumbstruck.  Cas had said that there were only a fixed number of angels, created by God.  Assuming that God stayed missing in action, every death of an angel was a permanent loss for their population.  There were no baby angels and he'd never heard of a half-angel, so he just assumed that the entire species was sterile... Well, physically he'd be having a kid with Hael's soulless vessel, but there had to be something more to it than that if Heaven deemed it blasphemous.

"Any children you two have would be considered a crime against Heaven.  Angels loyal to the laws of Heaven would try to kill it."  She warned.

"How's that different than any other member of this family?"

* * *

 "Hi, Hael."  Ruby said while briefly glancing up from some notes.  She was seated at their dining table double checking Tom's calculations for a luck spell while Sam was making dinner.  Dean coming over wasn't a surprise, he'd been promised free reign of their superior kitchen as compensation for helping with the porch.  Hael following him in was a little unusual though.

"Actually that's Cas."  Dean corrected while gesturing at the woman to his right.  Ruby & Sam both stopped what they were doing to stare.

"I'm temporarily switching vessels with Hael."  Cas explained.

"I didn't think that was possible."  Sam commented as he turned down the stove so that he could give the strange development his undivided attention.

"It's difficult & uncomfortable."  Cas admitted.

"Then why are you doing it?"  

"Cas & I are gonna try to have a kid."  Dean couldn't help the smile that spread across his face.  

"Nice!"  Sam grinned with giddy excitement.

"About damn time."  Ruby nodded in approval, then thought of something.  "Cas, have you ever been in a female vessel before?"  

"No."

"Oh sweetie, come with me.  We need to have a little talk girl to girl."  Ruby got up from the table, grabbed Cas' arm and started walking her out of the room.

"I understand how to copulate."  Cas muttered defensively.

"It's so cute that you think that's all we're gonna talk about."  Ruby patted Cas' back before kicking the bedroom door shut behind them.

"Maybe we should’ve stopped her?"  Asked Sam.

"He's like billions of years old.  What could she possibly say to spook him?"  Dean shrugged, then strolled into the kitchen.  He started digging through the cupboards for supplies.

"Now I really want to know what they're talking about..."  Sam's brow furrowed in a mixture of embarrassment & mild concern.  Dean noticed the look on Sam's face, then eyed the bedroom door.

"Ditto."  

Dean started seasoning a few steaks, while Sam returned to working on his vegetarian hash.

"So, you're probably excited.  Cas as a woman."  Sam asked while cutting up some fresh herbs.  Dean made a noncommittal noise, that surprised Sam into looking up.  "What?  No judgement, I just thought that you might miss women.  It's been..."

"About ten years"  Dean filled in the blank.  Sam nodded, impressed with how much time had passed since Dean had hung up his womanizer hat.  "Don't make fun of me, but I want to get this over with and get Cas back in his body as fast as possible... It's gonna be weird."

"But it's still Cas."

"Have you & Ruby ever messed around with her in a different body?"  Dean stopped fiddling with the steaks and looked at Sam, who frowned slightly as his answer.

"You still remember where to-"  Sam started, but Dean threw a handful of steak seasoning at Sam, hitting him in the face.

* * *

 Dean supposed Hael's vessel was pretty.  It had blue eyes, but not as vibrant a blue as Cas' male vessel.  Her hair was blond & fairly straight.  She had full lips and a pair of D cups.  A decade ago Dean would've happily taken a tumble with a woman who looked like her, but that was before he got married.  It wasn't that he didn't find women attractive, it was just not want he was looking for anymore.  He'd been with Cas, in the male vessel, for over eight years.  That was what he'd become used to.  Rationally he knew that Cas was still Cas regardless of the vessel, but it made him uncomfortable to be trying something so different from what they were used to doing as a couple.

They were in their bedroom.  Cas stood a little awkwardly next to the bed.  She didn't know how to start the process and Dean wasn't making it any easier.  He was obviously nervous.  When Cas leaned in for a kiss, Dean returned it with his lips chastely closed.  He pulled back.

"I'm sorry, babe.  It's just hard-”  Dean rolled his eyes.  “not as easy with you like this."

"Do you want call it off?"

"No!  No.  I just need to get used to it."  He placed a hand on her shoulder.  "It'll be fine."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Just please don't take this personally.  I just see you one way in my head."  Dean closed his eyes to in demonstration.  "I know you're not your vessel, but it's all I get to see of you- and with you in our friend's vessel.  It’s just… weird."

"I understand.  I have an idea."  She went to the nightstand and drank the fertility elixir that Ruby had prepared for them, then turned out the lights.  She moved back over to Dean and kissed him again.

He tried to imagine Cas' male vessel, which was made a harder by the female vessel being half a foot too short.  But the few drops of the elixir that he tasted on her lips seemed to give him a small thrill.  He couldn't tell if it was partially an aphrodisiac or if it was the excitement of realizing they were really about to try having a kid.

They each started undressing themselves to avoid bringing more attention to Cas' new body.  Dean managed to find some oil in the dark and started stroking himself hard.  When he was ready he climbed on top of Cas, who had laid down on the bed.

Looking down Dean could see Cas' bare breasts and long blond hair in the dim light.  He grabbed her and flipped her over onto her hands & knees.

"Should I-"  Cas began, but her voice was jarringly feminine.

"Cas, I love you, but please don't talk right now."  Dean cringed internally with guilt, but he pushed it from his mind.  After a few quick strokes, Dean lined himself up and pressed into Cas.  Cas was so tight that for a second Dean worried he'd missed his mark.  In the darkness he scowled at the idea that Sam's teasing might've been right, but then Cas pushed back against him in encouragement.

Dean grabbed her hips, which were a little too full, but that didn't stop him.  He looked up towards the ceiling and tried to imagine Cas' wings rocking back & forth with each thrust.  In hindsight, he probably should've tried harder to make Cas cum, but for their first time having hetero sex, he just wanted to break the ice.  He pressed into her hard as he finished.

Afterward they laid together in the dark while waiting for Dean to recover.  The silence stretched on for several minutes before Dean laced his fingers between Cas'.  He held her hand to his lips and kissed it.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could be more for you."  Dean said softly.

"It's okay, I know how hard you're trying."

"I love you, and what you're doing for us..."  Dean smiled in the darkness.  "for our family."

* * *

12/3/2017

Six months later Dean ran through the center of the camp and threw open Sam & Ruby's front door.

"Cas is pregnant!  We're gonna have a kid!"  He hopped up & down excitedly as soon as he got inside their home.  Sam rushed over and tackled him with a hug, accidentally knocking the two man-children over into a coat rack.


	10. 2018

April-May 2018

Dean doted over Cas more than anyone had expected.  It was partially from anticipation, but also it was his chance to show affection that didn't require physical intimacy.  Cas hadn't left the camp since they had started trying to conceive for fear that the strain on the incompatible vessel might further complicate the pregnancy.  Dean occasionally would visit army's bases for a day or two each week, but for the most part he diligently focused on his family.

There was almost no information available on nephilim.  Historically, there had only been five, and all that was known about them was largely an oral history from the group that had killed them.  

The most well known nephilim were the twin brother & sister, Seraph & Sophia.  In spite of the policy of angels not to document nephilim, the siblings had managed to make it into an old hunters' codex.  Their entry in the codex didn't describe their angelic mother or the fact that more than half of their known kills were of angels, but those details were provided by Cas.  It did however describe them as hunters from the mid-sixteenth century with a reputation for speed, guile, & resilience against injuries.  They were the longest surviving nephilim, both killed in battle by angels at the age of sixteen.  

With so little information, there was a certain amount of new terrain being covered.  The most surprising aspect was that the pregnancy progressed faster than an entirely human one. Cas could feel kicking and movement by the eighth week.  Going into the fifth month, she looked like she was almost full term.

Cas was at 25 weeks when she went into labor.  Dean was sleeping when he was woken up by her clutching his wrist.  Cas was laying next to him, eyes clenched, holding her belly.  

"Cas, babe!"  He touched her back and recognized the tension in her body as being a possible contraction.  After a few seconds, she relaxed slightly, releasing his wrist.  

"I'm gonna go get help.  I'll be back in less than a minute- I promise."  Cas nodded without opening her eyes.  He kissed Cas' hand, then ran out of their cabin.  Once he got within earshot of Sam & Ruby's cabin he yelled for help.  He didn't bother waiting for anyone to get out of their groggy stupor.  Ruby was home that night and didn't sleep, leaving her practically on call.  The light in her & Sam's bedroom turned on as Dean started running back to Cas.

From the very beginning, Cas’ labor was incredibly intense.  There was no gradual increase, so when despite arriving during only the second contraction, Ruby’s expression turned grim.  She sat down on the bed next to Cas and pushed some of the hair out of Cas' face.  Cas' vessel was sweating & trembling.  Even between contractions, she was having difficulty speaking.  Ruby had taken up the role of midwife since she'd given birth twice, but she chewed on her lower lip.  She turned to look at Dean.

"Pray for Hael."

Dean went out into the living room and hastily prayed.  Nothing happened.  Cas cried out from the other room.  He prayed again, and once more nothing happened.  Dean grabbed a lamp off the desk and threw it at the wall, but it stopped just before impact.  Sam lowered the lamp to the floor as he entered the living room and looked at Dean with concern.

"It's too soon."  Dean managed, then anxiously started pacing.

"We don't know that."  Sam said, but his words didn't seem to register.  In frustration, Sam telekinetically grabbed Dean to stop him from moving.  Dean fidgeted, then looked at Sam, who gave his older brother a hug.  "I know it's scary, but you've got to calm down and just be there for Cas."

Hael arrived an hour later.  He had been resting the borrowed vessel at their Richmond base when he sensed the prayer.  He tried to fly directly there, but he had difficulty thanks to the incompatible vessel and trace amounts of an anti-flight aura around the Great Lakes area.  It took several tries, but eventually he was able to get through the difficult patch, to the camp.

The entire labor was confusing & distressing to Dean.  He sat beside his husband, who was trying to give birth at a week that by human standards was dangerously premature, while his friend was wearing his husband's body and trying to assist.  It was upsetting on so many levels, but he simply held onto Cas and tried to be as comforting as possible.

5/3/2018

After forty two hours of labor, their son was born.  Hael cleaned up the baby, wrapped him in a soft blanket, then handed him to Dean.  Hael healed the female vessel, then promptly transferred vessels with Cas.  

Dean had been transfixed on his son, so when he eventually looked up at the two angels, he wasn’t entirely sure which one was which.  Cas, in his male vessel wrapped an arm around Dean and kissed him.  Tears started falling down Dean's face as they kissed.

They looked down at their son.  His wisps of hair were a bit blonder than Dean's, possibly reminiscent of the female vessel.  But his eyes- his eyes were the intense light blue that had only ever existed in Cas' eyes.

* * *

 

10/25/2018

Dean was leaning back in his chair with his boots up on what barely passed for his desk, reading a report on three skirmishes that took place earlier in the week.  He looked up at the sound of someone knocking loudly on his office door.  It was barely seven in the morning, which was over an hour before he was expecting anyone.  After lowering his feet to the ground, he sat up in his chair and turned to the door.

“Come in.”  Dean's mood darkened slightly when he saw the middle aged man enter the room.  He liked Kelley well enough, but that was the problem.  Every time there was trouble on the base, the other subordinates would always send in Kelley to give him the bad news.  At this hour it had to be something unpleasant- maybe another brawl between the demons & the hunters.  The last one had been such a nightmare to deal with that he’d had to call in both Sam & Bobby to help straighten everyone out.

"Sir, we have a strange situation..."  Dean hoped his complete lack of surprise looked like discipline or thoughtfulness.  "There's a kitsune here-"

"Why would someone bag a kitsune?"  It'd been a year or two since the hunters under his command had even looked at a monster, they all had bigger concerns.  If there was a personal matter that someone needed to go resolve, he’d have granted them leave, but dragging a hunt onto the base was against the rules.  They couldn’t be wasting resources and potentially harming their relations with the demons & angels by falling back into old habits.

"No one did, he just came into the camp & surrendered.  It looks like he's just a teenager."  Kelley looked more anxious than he normally did when breaking bad news.  "He asked if you were related to Sam Winchester."

"Where is he?"

* * *

 Teenager was almost misleading.  The boy couldn’t have been older than sixteen.  He was lanky with fair skin, messy brown hair, and teal eyes.  His jeans & sweatshirt were slight oversized, giving the distinct impression that he had borrowed or possibly stolen them.  The soles of his sneakers were cracked in three places and one of the shoelaces had been replaced with a piece of wire.  He had opted to cower in the far corner of his small holding cell rather than sit on the cot that was against one of the side walls.

The sight made Dean internally wince with pity, but he reminded himself that kitsune did almost exclusively feed on humans.  In spite of the voice in his head warning caution, he wanted to try to improve the situation somehow.  He turned to the guard and nodded at the cell door.  Once the door was unlocked, Dean walked in, then knelt down across the cell so that he was facing the boy.  He kept one hand on his thigh, only a few inches from his blade.

"I'm Dean.  Do you know who I am?”  The boy nodded.  His eyes moved around the cell, but eventually settled on Dean.  “Can you tell me your name?"

"Jacob."  He was soft spoken and his nose twitched in a way that Dean initial mistook for fighting back sniffles until he realized that the kitsune was studying some sort of scent.  "Are... Are you related to Sam W- Winchester?  You're both... h- hunters- I thought that you might- you might be part of the- you might be related..."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I'm- I’m supposed to find him, I need his help."  Jacob was trembling.  Dean slowly held his hands up, away from his blade.

"I'm his brother.  Listen, there are a lot of people that want to hurt Sam.  In general I want to help you, but I'm not sure if I trust you.  You have to admit it's pretty weird having a kitsune just hand himself over to someone he knows is a hunter."

"B- But that's why I'm supposed to find him.”  The boy leaned forward trying to emphasize some point, but then pulled back into the corner and spoke a little quieter.  “Because he's not like other hunters."

"That's an understatement.”  Dean muttered, but the comment only made Jacob look confused.  “What do you need help with anyway?"

The boy’s face scrunched up a little as he tried to decide whether he was going to tell someone other than Sam about his problem.  Having a minute to look at the kid, Dean noticed that he was a little too pale & clamy.  He looked slightly gaunt… underfed, which concerned Dean on more than one level.

"Three of my pack- they’re gone- they’ve have gone missing and four were killed-"  

"Kid, I hate to say it, but hunters don't always keep tabs on each other and Sam hasn't really been on good terms with the community for the last decade-”

“It wasn’t hunters.”  Jacob shook his head, then looked Dean in the eyes for the first time.  “Something took them, it got in them-”

“Got in them?”  Dean asked.

“I don’t know what it was- b- but I’m supposed to find Sam W- Winchester if there’s something the pack can’t handle- something strange.  We’ve never seen it before- I didn’t know who else to ask-  I don’t know what to do.”  The boy was starting to ramble, so Dean held up his hand to silence him.

"Why are you supposed to find Sam specifically?”  

"Because... he won't hurt me."

"Why's that?"  Dean knew Sam was a softy at heart, but it’d been about twelve years since that was the public perception, even more so since San Francisco.

"He was friends with my mom."

* * *

Dean assigned one angel to find Jacob some better fitting clothes and try to make him as comfortable as possible.  Another angel was assigned to act as a guard outside his holding cell, for his protection, until Dean could figure out what to do with him.  After temporarily delegating the boy's care, he cleared his calendar for the day and used a talisman to get back home.  He found Sam at his cabin, lounge on the couch, reading something on his laptop.  When Dean entered, he glanced up from his computer and gave a little wave.

"You're back early."

"Anybody else around?"  Dean asked as he hung up his jacket.

"Ruby's working downstairs.  Cas, Bobby, & Isa took the kids out to the lake.  Flo's still in Virginia..."  Sam raised an eyebrow when he noticed Dean wasn’t particularly cheerful looking.  "Why?  Something up?"

"I just wanted to talk with you, one on one- It's not super bad, mostly weird.  We've got a kitsune prisoner on our Little Rock base.  He just walked in & surrendered."  Sam looked up from his laptop at the mention of a kitsune, but relaxed a bit when Dean said 'he'.  "He was looking for you.  His name is Jacob Pond."

"Doesn't ring a bell."  Sam thought for a moment, but shook his head.

"He said his mom, Amy, was a friend of yours."  Dean watched closely for various tells, he didn't need to look hard at all.  Sam lost a little color and closed his laptop.  He rested his elbows on his knees, then buried his face in his hands

"Amy has a kid."  Sam said mostly to himself.

“Hands.”  Dean commented as he sat down on an armchair.  Sam ran his fingers up through his hair, then looking up to face Dean.  

“Sorry- nothing, just surprised.”  

"So you're friends with a kitsune?"

"We haven't spoken in... years.”  Sam looked up, trying to recall some memory.  “Last time we talked I was at Stanford."

"Wait, you were friends with a kitsune before the water even got muddied with the Abyssal stuff?"  Sam smiled with false innocence.  Dean had come to terms long ago with the fact that Sam kept some unusual company, but that had mostly derived from his role as King of Hell.  The thought that maybe some of it had been foreshadowed years earlier was a little unsettling.  

"She saved my life when I was fourteen- while you & dad were on a hunt.  We kept in touch intermittently after that for a few years."

"I don't want to sound like a complete bigot, but kitsune eat humans and you two were like pen pals?"

"She was one of my first real friends.  I mean, she knew I was a hunter and still liked me…”  Dean could see the appeal.  Growing up a hunter was a fairly isolated life, with most of your temporary friendships being premised on lies.  The fact that she’d been a kitsune was definitely a complication though.  No wonder he’d never heard of her until the boy showed up.  “How old is he?"

"Somewhere in the ballpark of fifteen."  Dean could see Sam think through something for a painfully long time.

“She wasn’t with him.”  Sam’s tone was more of a concerned statement than a question.  He looked like he already knew the answer.

“She’s dead.”  Sam swallowed hard, then nodded as he processed the information.  “She had told him to track you down if he ever needed the help of a hunter.”

“I guess she’s been dead for awhile.”  Sam's voice had become slightly heavier with the all too familiar jaded grief.  Had they turned out to be closer Dean might've given Sam some time to mourn, but he had to do something about the kid and there was also intel that Sam needed.

“Not that long actually, they just hadn't heard about all this.  The demon & angel crowd doesn't really overlap with the-". Dean almost said 'monster crowd' but stopped himself from triggering one of Sam's pet peeves...  Honestly, he was getting pretty tired of the word too.  "non-human crowd very much.  I guess a few months ago three of the pack members killed half the pack, Amy included, then took off.  Jacob left the other two surviving pack members in Chicago and has been trying to find you since.”

“Why would kitsune kill their own pack members?  Aren't they endangered?"

"Super endangered nowadays, but I have a guess why the kitsune on kitsune violence happened.  The kid said the three that started it, their eyes were black."

Sam closed his eyes for moment and pinched the bridge of his nose.  

"Lilith is possessing non-humans."

"Is that even possible?"  Dean asked.

"I don't know- if it is, then this things are going to turn even messier."  Sam opened his eyes.  He looked like the mere thought had aged him a year.  Frequently at home, when he was feeling relaxed, he had a youthful air about him.  But when he switched gears to thinking about work, all the years in Hell would start to creep into the corners of his eyes & mouth.  “I’ll put people on it.  If she’s figured out a way to jump non-humans… we need to know fast.”

“Let me know as soon as you hear anything.”  Sam nodded, then he turned his attention back to the original topic.

"What's going to happen to the kid- Jacob?"  

"I'm not sure.  We don't really have protocol for a non-human.  He's in a cell right now."

"He's a kid."  Sam looked at Dean in a combination of surprise & disappointment.

"Don't look at me like that, I know he's a kid.  I made sure he was comfortable before I came here, but pretty soon he's gonna need to eat and that means humans.  I can’t have him running out to grab a bite."

"Kitsune don't need the brain to be fresh.  It shouldn't be too hard to find bodies."  Suggested Sam.

"Sam, I know you don't work with the flesh half after a person drops, but topside we still have to deal with funeral rites and next of kin.  I can't just feed our fallen comrades to some kitsune.  I don't care if he's a nice kid, desecrating bodies is a big deal."

"What about the meatsuits that demons were riding?  Most of them relocate after grabbing the body.  That saves you the next of kin issue."

“Fuck.”  Dean slouched in his chair.  “We’re really talking about what to feed him- what the hell am I supposed to do with him?  I can’t just let him…”

“Wait, killing him is off the table, right?"  Sam sat up straighter, preparing himself for a potential argument.  

“I don’t want to kill a kid.  I don’t want to keep him in the cell forever.  But I don’t want to let him loose out there to kill humans.”

“Give him protection and meatsuit brains if he’ll agree to stop hunting humans.”

“Protection?”

“If Lilith is really possessing non-humans and starting with kitsune, then he might be in danger."

Dean chewed his lower lip while thinking over the options.  The kid was a risk, but he’d been in that kind of situation before..  Years ago he’d put faith in Sam’s ability to carry a grim burden and so far he hadn’t regretted the decision.  He didn’t trust the kid anywhere as much as he had with Sam, but giving him a chance felt surprisingly important.  Their fledgling army was an unlikely alliance and to turn away the boy because of what he was undermined that ideal.  

"I don't want him near our home.”  Dean said with determination.  “I don't care if you have some sentimental thing or whatever, he's not going near the kids or Ruby.  He'll live on the army's bases and if he can behave himself, I'll make sure he’s treated fairly."

"What about the rest of his pack- the two in Chicago?"

"You want to bring them in too?" Dean sighed, then nodded.  "If Jacob can talk them into coming peacefully... yeah, we can try to make it work.  If Lilith goes looking for more claws, at least she won’t find these ones."

"Wait.  How did he find you with all the security precautions?"

"Yeah, that.  Turns out almost all our warding is for angels, demons, & humans- so it didn't really block him at all.  And..."  Dean smirked at the mental image.  "He's been stalking hunters for months.  Turns out he can track a scent from a half mile away and eavesdrop a hundred feet out.  He just hunted hunters until he heard the name Winchester and followed them to me."

"You realize how much of an asset he could be."  The fatigue in Sam’s demeanor had shifted back to a more enthusiastic thoughtfulness at the prospect of having one more trick in their arsenal.

"He's clever and a hell of a tracker, I'll give him that.  But we're mostly going after baddies that can teleport, which’ll null out his tracking ability."  Dean shook his head slightly.

"Then have him go after the ones that can't teleport."  Sam was suggesting that they send one or more kitsune out to hunt humans.  The idea seemed backward & wrong.  They’d just gotten done discussing ways of preventing the kitsune from killing humans… granted, if it was part of normal operations those humans would be the enemy, not civilians.  And otherwise he'd be sending other troops out to do the same thing and probably less effectively.

"I never thought I'd be training a kitsune."


	11. 2019

1/27/2019

It was unusual for a demon of such a low rank to request an audience with Sam.  Generally, the demons didn't communicate with anyone more than two ranks above them unless spoken to first.  Currently the act was considered disrespectful of the hierarchy, though Sam suspected that the custom had originally derived from fear.  The weak didn't want to interact with anyone capable of making their existence even more miserable.

But some lesser demon had overcome incredible odds to meet with him.  Zie was stationed on Earth, fighting in the AFE, and had waded through a huge amount of bureaucracy- seeking approval for leave and pleading zir way through the chain of command to get onto Sam's radar.

Bethlim's form was small for a demon, but there was a glow inside zir that Sam rarely saw, it was righteous indignation.  Zie moved with minor hesitation, uncertain of how to act in Sam’s presence.  Zie probably had never even spoken to zir own Archdemon, let alone the King within the Citadel.

"You went to a lot of effort to meet with me.  What would you like to discuss?"  Sam wanted to acknowledge the demon’s struggle, but he kept his tone neutral until he knew more details.

"I've been serving on Earth for over four years.  Some of the humans, they're tough- I like working with them."

"But something's wrong?"

"A few of them are dead- I know they came down afterward, we all knew that's how it'd shake.  I told them, what it'd be like and how to hedge so they could come back to the fight.  But they didn't come back- their souls were trashed."

"They didn't survive the change?"  Sam's brow furrowed in confusion at the issue.  It was normal for the majority of souls to perish during their torture rather than turning into demons.  Morrison suspected that their destruction actually provided some of the dark magics that powered Hell, but in the grand scheme demons were the desired outcome.  Desired, but never guaranteed.  The destruction of some human souls shouldn't come as a surprise to any demon, even a young & lesser one.

"No, they didn't get the chance to change.  I knew something was wrong- if I made it, these guys woulda.  They were incredible and knew what to expect.  So I found some Torqueans-"  Bethlim shook slightly with anger.  "They took a few lots of the souls and just dumped 'em instead of working them.  I want someone's head.  Let those torturous fucks get torn apart for a change."

The idea that a group of Torquean were destroying inventory instead of doing their jobs was unnerving.  The middle of a war was one of the worst times to be cutting corners.  They had retaken the Pits and had recently finished staffing all of the dungeons, but there was still a population deficit to be fixed within many castes.  And with the quickly escalating conflict on Earth, the demand for additional soldiers was increasing.

"I'll have some people look into it."  Sam offered, then nodded to an assistant, who made a note of it.

"Sir,"  Bethlim hesitated, fearful of overstepping zir bounds.  "can you have them make it a priority?  To get it stopped."

"You have more friends you're worried about?"  Sam tested to see if zie would admit to being emotionally invested in humans.  It was obvious to him- why else would a demon go to so much trouble for someone beyond their caste?  But he wanted to see if he could get a demon on record as considering humans friends.

"Sir, my boyfriend's a human."  

That was a new one.  He'd obviously heard of human-angel relationships, but he'd thought he was the only human reckless enough to take a chance on falling for a demon.  He wanted to help Bethlim- not just because he could relate, but also because there was something incredibly important about preserving those rare relationships.  Maybe if they survive long enough to be known they won't be so rare.

"I'll look into it myself."

* * *

It was fairly rare for Sam to call a meeting of the Archdemons.  Usually Crowley acted as Sam's go between with the other Arches.  It gave Crowley a bit more authority and helped buffer Sam's personal life from his most demanding... he wasn't sure whether they constituted subjects or employers.  Either way, Crowley was generally responsible for setting Sam's schedule and that suited them both fine... most of the time.

When Sam took the initiative on something it was usually big, either in scale or innovation.  He had learned many of the customs of the plane, but he had a unique perspective that allowed him to make suggestions others would never even humor.  A significant number of his ideas had turned out to be impractical, yet his efforts had made a real difference in the daily lives of both demons and those who interacted with them.  What he was planning would undoubtedly make an impact, one way or the other.

"We need to create a new caste."  Sam didn't sugarcoat or try to finesse the unpleasant topic for the High Council.  He knew there'd be a backlash, but once the outrage was out of their system everyone could get down to business.

"We can't create new castes- only Lucifer can create them."  Denerus, the Archdemon of the Arbris exclaimed.

"Where does it say that?"  Commented Morrison with a shrug-like gesture.  
  
"It defies tradition."  Weller countered, but below her shell she was surprisingly calm.  
  
"I understand that, and I respect what tradition means, but if we don't act this place will collapse."  Sam explained.  
  
"Our hands are tied-"  
  
"By what?  It's not like we have a constitution."  Crowley interrupted.  
  
"The fact is that our system is overwhelmed, it wasn't designed to handle a situation like this.”  Sam continued his pitch.  “We have too many souls coming in and can't keep this up.  We don't have the manpower to process them and we don't have the space to store them.  Right now we're burning souls that would've otherwise survived the change."  
  
"Let them burn.  We can skim the stock for the strongest ones and who cares if the weak ones are destroyed."  Suggested Iblett.  
  
"Nevermind the unbridled waste."  Crowley’s expression was pure disgust.  
  
"It'll increase the average quality of our demons."  
  
"We don't need to up our average, we need to mind our numbers.  We can't afford to burn perfectly good souls."  Sam sighed.  "If things continue as they are we'll run out in approximately 15 Earth years."  
  
"Run out?"  Asked Weller.  
  
"We’ve crossed the threshold- the humans are facing extinction.  That's why we're seeing so many new souls.  They're dying faster than they can reproduce.  This isn't some kind of situation where they're finding a new equilibrium with their surroundings, they're being killed off."  The news shook everyone.  "We can't afford to waste souls.  We need more soldiers on Earth protecting our supply and we need more storage to keep the current surplus."  
  
"Where are we supposed to find storage?  Every inch of Hell is in use."  Mused Pizel.  
  
"We're going to expand, either upward or into the rock walls."  Sam wasn’t suggesting, he was instructing.  "That's the new caste.  We need demons with the explicit charge of improving, expanding, & maintaining the infrastructure."

“We don’t know what’s beyond the rockface.  It could be anything.”  Pizel said in concern.  “The gates are imbedded in the stone, but who knows how deep it is.”

“Then we better pick our best researchers & engineers to be in the new caste, because we’re expanding one way or another.”  Sam spoke firmly.  “Denerus, get your people to find us some saviors.”  
  
"I can see the issue, but if we attempt to disrupt the system too much, like adding a new caste or expanding Lower- what will it say to our people?  We'll be telling them that Lucifer's design was flawed.  It will destabilize our civilization's faith."  Asked Hathai, the substitute-Arch for the Luxia.  
  
"If we coddle that faith it'll destroy us all."  Sam generally liked Hathai.  She took a 'don’t ask don’t tell' approach to demons who retained their human faiths, but he was frequently faced with the struggle of having a state religion.  "There might come a time when our people need to look that faith in the eyes and say 'this is wrong'... it might be today."

“You’re pushing your luck.”  Hathai commented.  She’d never directly threatened Sam.  Her relative divine authority was less and she wasn’t a fool.  She knew he could get away with killing her with only minor political backlash and she also knew that he didn’t actually worship Lucifer.

“We all are.”  Sam replied, but offered her a more palatable spin.  “We’re not insulting Lucifer’s vision, we’re showing that he made us capable of evolving- of surviving.  This is our Second Season after all.”  
  
“I’ll inform my people.”  Hathai nodded, then advised.  “You should make penance for your tone.  Those outside this chamber won’t hear it, but Lucifer hears all.”

“I will.”  Sam assured her, earning a smile.  He wasn’t actually sure if he’d do anything later.  Swinging by her favorite temple would probably win him some favor with the caste he was most likely to piss off with this whole mess.

“Self-flagellate on your own time.”  Crowley commented.  “Is there anything else? We all have a lot to do.”  
  
"I'd like to put additional manpower into researching our power sources.  If we can't save the humans, we'll need to know what impact that would have.  Similarly,"  Sam paused for a moment to brace for the mess he was about to walk into.  "we're going to reopen the research into reproducing without torturing souls.  If the humans die out, we'll have an incredibly pissed off Heaven with no one else to fight.  If they come to our gates, we need to have a way to replenish our ranks."  
  
"Sir, you're the only demon that's ever successfully reproduced-"  Morrison began.  

The topic had been the elephant in the room ever since it was confirmed that Kaylee existed.  The idea that demons could someday reproduce on their own had been a pipe dream for so long that no one really knew how to go about striving for it again.  But to have Sam advocate it was unexpected & significant.  For years he’d been trying to keep his sex life out of the purview of others and avoided the mere discussion of having more kids like the plague.  Things really were desperate.

"I'll cooperate with the research, but me having kids is not a plan.  We're talking about saving our species- all Abyssal, we need something more."

* * *

1/29/2019

"You've got to be kidding me?"  Ruby crossed her arms and stared at Sam, unsure of how serious he was.  "I could've sworn after we had Alex you said that the Council was gonna back off on the whole us having more kids thing."

"It's not really the same old pitch."  His smile was a bizarre mix of guilt & optimism.  

"You're serious about this?"

"It's not like I want it to happen like this, but it makes the most sense."  Sam lowered his voice as he looked around for anyone who might be in earshot.  "Ruby, if Earth loses this war, we need to have a backup plan.  Our people deserve a chance to survive on their own.  As is, we're barely a species.  We’re… we're a byproduct."

She'd been working in the research and development division of the Maji for years and knew the importance of having good data- she just didn't like the idea of being the guinea pig.  They'd undoubtedly find a way to make the experience as discreet as possible, but he was still asking her to have sex with him while being observed.  Actually, to try to have another kid in front of them, which probably meant multiple attempts.  And if they were successful, she'd be expected to stay in Hell for the full term of the pregnancy for monitoring.  

It had been so absurd when Sam had asked her that she'd assumed he was kidding.  He'd managed to gather ten varieties of french fries as tribute.  He'd even tried to frame it as giving Dylaniel a playmate close to his own age.  Despite all the bribes & smooth talking, it was the prospect of getting some hard data that appealed to her most- but all those reasons were secondary.

"You're talking about having another kid.  This isn't some science fair project."  She leaned back in her chair.

"I know that."  Sam looked a little hurt.  "I love the kids- I'd love another one just as much."

"I know you're a great dad, I just... This feels different-"

"You mean intentionally having a kid?"  He couldn’t help but chuckle at their situation.

"Yeah, I guess.”  She had to concede the point.  “I don't know how Dean & Cas did it."

"Now that you mention it, it's weird that they went for like eight years without accidentally getting pregnant."  He furrowed his brow playfully and she gently kicked at his shin.

"Mr. Diplomat, didn't anyone ever tell you not to be such a smartass when you're begging."

"Are you really going to make me beg?"  Sam knelt down in front of her chair, then folded his hands on her lap.  

"Maybe not out here, but you on your knees certainly doesn't hurt."  She smiled at him as she spread her legs.  He unconsciously licked his lips.

"The sacrifices I make for my people."  He said softly while sliding his hand up her thighs.

"I get to name this one."

* * *

They'd decided to try having sex on the Seat again, since the one time that had tried it previously had resulted in Alex.  With a little luck they’d be able to get the whole awkward experience out of the way in one go.  After extensive trial and error, the Maji that had successfully extracted the children's syf had developed a temporary measure to protect Ruby's limbs from accidentally contact with the Seat.  The salve was a little oily, but effective- and Sam enjoyed helping her apply it.

On the surface they appeared to be alone, though they both knew that there were dozens of scrying spells monitoring different aspects of their actions.  It was a little embarrassing at first, neither of them was much of an exobitionist.  Yet after being left alone for an hour they relaxed and casually worked their way up to it with some long overdue foreplay.  In a way it was nice, for the immediate future the only thing on their to do list was each other.

After they stripped each other down, Sam sat on the throne.  With a wider range of motion, Ruby decided to climb on Sam facing him.  Her knees & shins rested on the Seat, which felt hot to her touch, but not painful.  She straddled him, then leaned in to kiss him.  As they kissed, he could feel intoxicating power start to move through him.

Sam pushed into her, causing her to gasp before lightly biting his ear.  They kissed desperate as she rode him harder & faster.  He had no reason to hold back, so he completely gave into instinct.  His hands clenched her flesh.  He could sense her passion and it consumed him.  

It felt like he was caught up in some incredible force that had its own momentum just waiting for him to release.  Above him was the love of his life, below him was something that craved that love.  It was energized by his touch and when he thrived its heart started beating again.  He could feel it reaching out below him, roots penetrating the very heart of Hell.  When he felt Ruby orgasm, it flared, bringing him closer.  

He pushed deeper into her, feeling her.  But there was more, he felt aware, of his body, her body, the tree's roots pulsing with energy... and for the first time he noticed that in the cold dark bedrock there were the roots of other lost titans.  Long dead and dormant, lost for countless lifetimes.  It should've shaken him, the death & loss, but he was used to death.

He wanted to create life.  They were in a land of eternal death and he wanted to see it bloom.  This place... it was alive once.  It had been beautiful once- it was the source of the first life.  He could feel it- spited and cast down, just like the demons who called it home.  He wanted to save it.  He wanted to save them all.

He gripped Ruby's shoulders pulling her tighter to him.  She moaned then whipped her hair back and he met her solid black eyes.  She wore the meatsuit, but he looked passed it to redemption incarnate.  The woman who'd saved him from despair.  The demon he loved.

His eyes rolled back as he came, then he rested his face against her chest as he hugged her.  Their hearts were pounding and a few drops of sweat trickled down his back.  Her fingers moved through his hair, then he felt her tense slightly.

"Uh, Sam... something happened."

He looked up at her, but became distracted by the brilliant colors.  The throne room was partially engulfed in a forest.  Surreal vines climbed the walls, young trees unlike any he'd ever seen on Earth were growing from the stone floor, which was covered in thick flowering moss.  

He'd created small amounts of plant life in Hell before, but he had always made a plant from Earth and they'd always died.  Similarly, the sprouts that he'd brought up to Earth years ago had all died within hours.  But these plants weren't imported, they were native- they'd been there all along, dead roots below the surface waiting for someone to will life back into Hell.

"That all this good of evil shall produce."  Sam whispered to himself.

* * *

 

02/02/19

“Do babies come from Hell?”  Alex asked while collecting pillows for a fort Kaylee was going to help him make.

“No- not normally.”  Tom rolled his eyes at the prospect of explaining any part of the baby talk to a four year old.  He decided to try sidestepping the worst of it as he handed over the two pillows from his bed.  “You remember when Dyl was born last year?  Dyl was on Earth when he was born.”

“Uncle Cas was sick.”  Alex’s eyes widened with concern.  “Is mom sick?”

“Cas wasn’t sick, it’s called ‘labor’ and it’s like working to help the baby arrive.”  It was somewhat problematic that this pregnancy would only last a bit over three days Earth time.  It was hard enough explaining babies even with months of warning time, but their parents had agreed to have the latest kid in Hell, which meant an accelerated timetable for everyone else.  “Baby stuff is kinda complicated, but the important thing is that mom’s fine and there’s gonna be a little brother or sister for us.”

“Dyl is little.”  Alex gestured to indicate some height, then reconsidered and lowered his estimate.

“Dyl’s our cousin.”  

Occasionally the distinction was lost on Alex, but Tom could hardly blame him.  They were all a big, slightly confusing family.  Their parents weren’t married, but their uncles were.  Their grandpa Bobby wasn’t biologically related and Tom knew better than to consider the biological one worth noting.  Tom suspected that Alex understood that they were not biological siblings, but Alex had never explicitly asked about it.  Then there was the fact that their Uncle Cas had been a woman for almost a year.

“I think we have enough pillows.”  Kaylee yelled from the living room, drawing her brothers out of Tom’s room.

“More pillows means more fort.”  Alex reasoned as he threw Tom’s pillows onto the pile..

“There’s no way you two are gonna be able to keep this fort when mom & dad get back.”  Tom couldn’t see an unobstructed path across the room.  “Newborns are a lot of work even without having to climb over a million pillows.”

“We’ll clean it up before they get back.”  Kaylee waved off the worry, then started organizing the cushions by size and firmness.

“If you say so.”  Tom doubted their ability to even tell which cabin each pillow & cushion came from, let alone to physically return them all in anything less than an hour.  He wasn’t sure he was prepared to end the inevitable lesson in biting off more than they could chew… but in all probability he’d end up bailing them out at the last second.  He’d accepted his lot in life as the oldest sibling/cousin years ago.

The front door of the cabin opened and Bobby came in.  He paused briefly to take in the mountain of cushions & pillows that had been assembled, then shrugged it off.

“I just got word from your dad.”  He announced.  “They’ll be back in about ten minutes, with your new sister.”

* * *

Per the Council’s request, Ruby stayed in Hell for the birth of their third biological child.  Sam stayed with her for the full term except for a quick stop topside to check on the kids.  It wasn’t specifically for the kids’ benefit, but more because after several months Hell time, he missed them more than he could stand.  

When the baby finally did come, the labor actually proved to be less strenuous than with Kaylee & Alex.  It wasn’t clear if that was from personal experience or the Abyssal environment.  Either way, Sam & Ruby weren’t about to complain about a six hour, complication-free birth.  But the ease of the birth wasn’t the most incredible part.  The newborn’s cries were the first to ever sound in Hell, a fact that wasn’t lost on anyone.

Sam could sense a small crowd of Citadel demons hovering outside the parlor, listening for any evidence of the baby demon.  But politics was some far away thought that hardly even registered in his mind.  He had another daughter.  

He was delighted.  His happiness was a warmth & life that infected the normally cold, dead landscape.  The rare native flowers of the Abyss bloomed.  For a moment there was an undercurrent of hope in Hell, though it wasn’t clear if that from Sam’s influence over the realm or the innate potential of new life.  Hell was one step closer to self-sufficiency.  Hell was one step closer to having a future, no matter what storms it might have to weather.

“What are we calling her?”  Sam asked Ruby, who had claimed naming rights even before she’d gotten pregnant.

“Sa’dah.”  Ruby gently caressed the light brown hair that bordered on dirty blonde.  “I was thinking her nickname could be Sadie.”

“Sa’dah, I like it.”  Sam wrapped his arm around Ruby and she rested her head on his shoulder.

There had been some awareness that she might be different than Kaylee & Alex.  She’d been conceived under more supernatural circumstances than the other two and brought to term entirely in Hell.  The silent assumption was that she’d be more… corrupted by the exposure to Hell, but she wasn’t.  She was perfectly normal- to Sam’s eyes, she was just perfect.

“She’s a little miracle, isn’t she?”  Sam chuckled, unable to contain the emotions welling up in him.

“All of our kids are.”  Ruby corrected.  “Four hellion miracles.”

* * *

Alex & Kaylee had barely finished stuffing the thirty fifth pillow into Alex’s bedroom when their parents entered the cabin.  Tom moved to intercept them while Alex closed the door, hiding the mess.  Kaylee nudged Alex forward to see the baby, then followed.  Sam & Ruby introduced Sa’dah to her siblings, who all fawned over her tiny form in turn

Dean & Cas entered the cabin, having been alerted by Bobby of Sam & Ruby’s return.  Dean was carrying the 9 month old Dylaniel, who quietly watched everyone.  Dean went to sit down on the couch, but hesitated when he noticed the seat cushions weren’t the same height and slightly different colors.

“Mom, dad!”  Kaylee tried to preempt any investigation into the couch.  “Want to see the nursery?  Crowley sent some new furniture & Morrison sent some stuff too.”

“I packed up all the things made of dead animals or brimstone.”  Dean said flatly, recalling the unpleasant afternoon.  “Rube, it’s in a box in your closet if you want to sort through it.”

“I took the frog bones.”  Tom confessed under his breath, then added at a normal volume.  “The new crib looks nice.”

They all went into the nursery so that Sam could put down the dozing Sa’dah for a nap.  Alex & Kaylee watched her sleep while Tom pointed out the wards from Morrison that had survived the purge.  After giving the kids a few minutes to marvel at the latest addition to the family, Dean brought Dylaniel over.

“See Dylan, you’ve got a little friend to play with.”  Dean told his son and pointed to Sa’dah.

“It’s nice that they’re so close together in age.”  Cas observed.

“Sam, you’ve got to take some time off.”  Dean suggested.  “I still have a few months with Anael giving me command coverage.  We can spend some time together with the kids- it’ll be great.”

It was hard for Dean to imagine anything better than getting some brotherly bonding time over taking care of the kids together.  He’d helped take care of Kaylee, Alex, & to some extent Tom.  Sam had helped him with Dylaniel.  But the idea of the two of them raising their kids together- that seemed like some picturesque scenario he’d never dared to hope for.

“Yeah.”  Sam said, more convincing himself than informing the others.  “I can switch up my schedule a bit.  The Council owes me one.”

“Be careful getting too comfortable you two.”  Ruby warned.  “Being stay at home dads isn’t really in the cards for the Commander of Earth’s army & the King of Hell.” 

* * *

Three days after Sam & Ruby brought Sa'dah home from Hell, Sam was rocking the newborn while Ruby was taking inventory of their old baby clothes.  It was a little strange that they had only decided to try for another kid a week earlier- Earth time.  There was a bit of an adjustment period for the rest of the family to get used to it.  Sam worried that this was only going to make explaining to the four year old Alex where babies come from even harder.  But overall, everyone was supportive and things had been surprisingly simply… until that third day.

"Mom?  Dad?"  Tom called out before he found them in the nursery.  "You two should see this."

He guided them out of the cabin and around its exterior.  Turning the second corner, they were at the back of the house, which looked onto the Canadian wilderness.  Tom bent down and pointed to a small grouping of plants along the base of the cabin.  Seven wild rose bushes were growing around the nursery.

"These weren't here last week."  

Ruby looked around at their surroundings.  There weren't any other rose bushes in view.  These sort of plants were native to the area, but she'd only ever seen them grow on the far side of the lake, maybe a forty minute walk away.  Moreover, the rose bushes were almost a foot tall, which was more than a rose bush could grow in a week... especially in February.

"Did you cast any spells around here?"  Ruby asked Tom as she examined the plants.

"No way.  I told Kay & Alex not to mess around near the cabins after Dean & Cas started trying for Dyl.  I don't think they've done anything since Sadie came home, but they'd been casting over by the baseball diamond if they were."

Sam kissed Sa'dah's tiny forehead as he looked at the rose bushes.  Ruby sighed, then shared an unsure glance with Sam.  Alex had a stronger affinity for magic & powers than Kaylee, which the couple secretly attributed to his unusual conception.  So neither was particularly surprised that the even stranger conception of Sa'dah might have some repercussions.  They were expecting powers, but not so soon and not like this.

* * *

03/12/2019

"You want to take the kids to a game at some point?"  Asked Dean.  

The brothers were laying in the warm spring sunlight on the pier closest to  Bobby's cabin.  Dean had managed to convince Sam to sneak away for a quick smoke by the water.  He preferred to have company while getting high because it made him chatty and today Sam happened to be his draftee.  He normally would get high at night away from the kids, but lately he'd had to take whatever opportunities he could.  At the moment the older kids were all preoccupied and the infants, Dylaniel & Sa'dah, were being watched by Cas & Ruby.

After Dylaniel was born, Dean decided to temporarily limit his time with the AFE.  He'd originally only planned on taking a little 'secret paternity leave' as he called it, but the truth was that his son & husband needed him more than he'd expected.  Cas was fairly good with kids, but he lacked an easygoing & warm demeanor that the young nephilim seemed to desperately need.  Dylaniel had been very wary of everyone other than his parents from about a week old.  So Dean took it upon himself to teach their son how to be more comfortable, relaxed… some would say more human.  The task was a completely uphill battle and by the third month he'd realized how much of a time commitment it would be.  

By some bizarre stroke of luck, Sam was able to spend a significant amount of time at home that overlapped with Dean's leave.  After Sa'dah's birth a month earlier, Sam had lobbied to increase his hours topside to help care for the newborn.  The discovery of the wild roses around the nursery had made him eager to stay close to home.  Of everyone at the camp, he was the most capable of handling another surprise display of power.  The Council concede to his time off, especially since he & Ruby had gone above & beyond in having Sa'dah to begin with.  He was grateful for the rare period of quiet family time, including occasionally listening to Dean's intoxicated musings.

"Game..."  Sam took a hit, then passed the joint back to Dean.  "Like sports?"

"Yeah, I've always wanted to go to a baseball or football game with the kids.  Now that we're both taking some time off work, I think it'd be fun."  

"I hate to break it to you,"  Sam said, a little reluctant to bring his brother back down to reality.  "but I think you're going to have a hard time finding a real stadium experience baseball or football game."

There had been so many attacks at major events that several months earlier most professional sports leagues had canceled their upcoming seasons.  It hadn’t made a significant impact on their lives to that point.  Even back when they used to hunt together, watching the occasional game was more of a homage to the wholesome upbringing they'd never had.  Sam didn’t follow sport news, unless it was incidentally related to some high soul yielding event.  Dean had very briefly followed baseball in a social capacity when he was trying to build solidarity during the AFE’s early years, but he gave it up after it became bogged down in gambling.

"Okay, so not around here.  We could go somewhere else- there's gotta be some place with a real game."

"How do you feel about cricket?"

"Tiny grasshoppers, used to keep me up at night."  Dean finished the joint with two puffs, then flicked the butt into the lake.  "It's like baseball, right?"

"That's probably the best analogy you're going to get."  Sam shrugged then continued his pitch.  "Mary has a cousin in the Indian Premier League- he plays on the something Royals.  They're still having games."

"Cricket... huh."  Dean chewed his lip uncertainly.

"It might win you some points with Kali,"  Sam appealed to Dean's implied obligation to make nice with Cas' siblings & their significant others.  It wasn't the best selling point, so Sam tried to reframe the trip to focus on someone Dean actually liked.  "Mary'd love to see you."

It had been about a year since he'd seen Mary.  He had never expected to be the kind of person who was friends with his doctor- he'd never expected to be the kind of person to have a doctor, but she had a special place in his heart.  As the trend shifted toward relying on angelic healing, human physicians were less & less utilized.  But Dean had found her incredibly helpful in a pinch- like the last time he visited her to get a discreet fertility test.  A community clinic in Jaipur, India was one of the last places anyone would think to find Dean Winchester... maybe he could take in more of the sights next time he was in the area?

"Do they serve hot dogs at the games?"

"I'm not sure."  Sam admitted.  "Definitely not beef ones, probably not pork either."

"They don't make everything out of that tofu stuff, do they?"  Dean furrowed his brow at the idea.

"You're thinking of paneer, that's a cheese. And no, they're not all vegetarians-  Remind me to take you out for some real food."

"I make real food."  Dean's voice was feigned offense.

"You make steaks & burgers."  

Sam had barely tried Dean's cooking in the roughly ten years that they'd had reliable access to kitchens.  Both of them cooked regularly, but they each made their own food even during group meals. It wasn't that Sam doubted Dean's skill, it was just that Dean almost always included meat and Sam couldn't stomach it since seeing his first human soul butchered.

"Like I said, real food."

"You're going to make Dylan a vegetarian, mark my words."  Sam teased.

"You stay the hell away from my son."

* * *

The sound of footsteps on the pier drew their attention, but neither of them bothered to get up.  Ruby & Cas had caught them.  Ruby held a sleeping Sa'dah while Cas carried Dylaniel.  The nephilim watched Sa'dah with a silent curiosity that he'd given her since they'd been introduced three weeks earlier.

"Can you two idiots sober up and watch the kids for a bit?"  Ruby asked.  She didn't generally have a problem with them getting high during the day, mostly she was just annoyed that she couldn't join them while still breastfeeding.

"Where's grumpa at?"  Sam gently kicked Dean for the question.  The nickname had been the result of Alex not being able to distinguish the words grandpa & grumpy for several weeks.  Dean thought the mistake was hilarious and immediately made it Bobby's name in his phone.  Sam had tried like hell to teach Alex the correct pronunciation, but the kid was stubborn as they come.

"Bobby & Isa took the teens & Kaylee shooting."  Ruby explained.  "Belda has her hands full with Alex- she's probably getting a crash course in counterspells as we speak."

"We should check on her, shouldn't we?"  Asked Sam with a slight turn of his head in the direction of Belda's cabin.

"That's all you."  Dean told Sam while raising his hands in abstention.  "As long as he doesn't burn anything down I'm staying out of the line of fire."

"It only happened twice-"  Objected Ruby.

"Four times."  Dean interrupted, then started ticking off fingers.   "My porch, Isa's roof, your kitchen-."  

"Kitchen fires happen."  Sam offered halfheartedly.

"Yeah, but they're usually caused by the stove."  

"Okay, fine- wait, what's four?"

"Bobby's boat."

"You said it sunk."  Ruby commented in surprise.

"Technical it did... eventually."  Dean rolled his eyes.  "I covered for the kid, so sue me."

"Whatever."  Ruby finally pardoned Dean, unwilling to throw a stone inside a glass house.  She knew perfectly will the massive list of things she let the kids get away with.  Sam tended to be the source of order while she mostly offered a nice juxtaposition.  "Sadie's sleeping like a log.  Sam, you can probably take her while keeping an ear out if Belda needs back up."

"The little man & I can work on that whole stacking blocks thing- I swear he's almost up to four."  Dean bragged a bit.  "Where're you two up to anyway?"

"I'd want to stop by our Istanbul base.  Anael would like me to meet with several of the newly fallen angels.  Two of them are very ill."  Said Cas.  Dean propped himself up on his elbows and tilted his head back to look at Cas better- albeit upside down.

"You sure you should be going?  It sounds kinda dangerous."

"It's not a physical illness and I won't establish a telepathic connection to them.  Anael just thought it would be helpful for me to talk to them."

"Don't let your guard down-"

"I know, Dean.  I'm going to be fine."  Cas' voice was soft reassurance mixed with the fatigue of having to regularly let Dean know that he was okay.  In many ways he thought it was sweet of Dean to worry about him, but with work, the difficulty pregnancy, & Dylaniel's special considerations- Dean sometimes seemed to worry excessively.

"I'm gonna run downstairs on some caste business."  Ruby interrupted, heading off anymore back & forth between the newer parents.  "Flo called, she thinks she might have a lead on some high grade munitions.  Turns out the New Cumberland Army Depot has its own fledgling coven.  I'm gonna go chat with their Maji and see what he needs in order to spread the good word."

"You're gonna try to convert an entire army base to demon-worshippers?"  Asked Dean, amused by the mental image.

"It's the DOD's largest distribution facility- you bet your ass I want them in the flock."  Ruby explained excitedly, earning a look of utter admiration from Sam.  "If we can bag them- in my book, they don't need to slaughter a single goat if they can sacrifice a few stinger missiles instead."

"Hey Sammy,"  Dean elbowed Sam playfully.  "you ever feel like there's something more than our simple, boring lives?"

Sam shoved Dean with a little extra push of telekinesis, rolling him off the pier into the lake.  Cas just stared flatly at Sam as Dean splashed & sputtered in the water.

"What?  I'm helping sober him up."

* * *

 

04/26/2019

Tom sat in one of Dean’s many offices, but at least this one was located in a warmer climate.  He’d asked to visit their California base in the hopes of sneaking in a little springtime fun, but his hopes had been slightly cramped.  Ruby suggested that he could put in some labor on the base to earn his vacation, something about learning to be an adult.   After getting dropped off, he’d gone to check in with Dean, but his uncle wasn’t there.    
  
An assistant told Tom that Dean had run home on an errand.  Since he hadn’t also been collected it was undoubtedly a minor thing, probably Dylaniel having an episode.  Aside from a handful of angel, no one in the AFE knew that Dean even had a kid, so it didn’t surprise him that the assistant lacked detailed information.  Unsure of what else to do, Tom decided to just wait for Dean’s return.

Just as Tom was nodding off, there was a knock at the door.  A lanky boy with shaggy brown hair & teal eyes came in.  He looked about the same age as him, maybe sixteen or so.  The boy wore military style boots & pants, but Tom recognized his Black Sabbath t-shirt as one that Dean had purchased a few months back.

“You looking for Dean?”  Tom asked.  
  
“Yeah.  You know when he’ll be b-back?”  He was soft spoken, but stood a little taller while he was assessing Tom.  His nose twitched slightly, then his head tilted in curiosity.

“I’m not sure.  Hopefully, not long.  He had to run home to take care of some personal stuff.  I kinda got abandoned here.”  Tom admitted.

“Join the club.”  A smile twitched on the boy’s face, then he extended a hand.  "Jacob.“  
  
"Tom.”  He introduced himself, then grinned with recognition.  "You’re the kitsune, Dean’s been training.“  
  
"I take-”  Jacob struggled for a moment before restarting his question.  "You’re the nephew, Tom-my?“

"Yeah.”  With a little more context, Tom looked over Jacob.  He’d heard about the kitsune pup- he caught himself and wondered if that might’ve been derogatory.  He’d heard about the kitsune youth that Dean took in as a mentor of sorts, but he’d never seen him.  The kid’s mom had been friends with his dad years ago.  Tom noted the lanky form and shaggy dark brown hair… he could see where Dean might’ve given Jacob a little more leeway than another kitsune.  "This is so weird.“  
  
"Scared I’ll eat you?”  Jacob chuckled revealing rather human looking teeth.

“No, I’m just feeling déjà vu… Have you met my dad?”  
  
 "No.“  Jacob raised an eyebrow.

"Have you met your dad?”  
  
“Yeah…”  Jacob’s brow furrowed and his voice was baffled.  
  
“Sorry, dick question for me to ask.  I just, thought… You know what, nevermind.”  Tom scratched his head uncomfortably.  "I’ve got like low blood sugar or something.“  
  
 "Wanna g-grab some food?”  Jacob offered.  "No b-brains or anything.“

* * *

Jacob led Tom through the base in something that resembled a tour.  It wasn’t the most informative due to his guide being a person of few words and distracted by his mission.  After sniffing at the air a bit he changed course a few times in search of the most delectable conquest.  Tom had to work to keep up the the kitsune, who moved in strange bursts of speed.  One of Bobby’s old hunter manuscripts had described kitsune as being sprinters by nature, and Tom understood that the bursts were probably compulsory.  
  
Jacob managed to secure two grilled chicken sandwiches & some sodas from one soldier’s private cookout.  Despite being a bit quiet it seemed that he had a reputation as the guy who could get his hands on anything.  The food from somewhere other than a mess hall had been exchanged for a ten pack of condoms and assurances that a shipment of ‘watermelons’ were coming in next week.  They ended up eating their spoils in the bed of a for army truck, in some understaffed supply depot.

"You just keep your jacket pockets full of condoms?”  Tom asked between bites.  Jacob blushed, then shrugged innocently.

“Always b-be pr-prepared.”  Tom laughed and raised his coke can to toast his host.

“'Watermelons’ aren’t real watermelons are they?”

“No.  Strips for your mouth- flavors for b-blowjobs.”

“No way, you’re the local smut runner?  

"B-Business is good.”  

“Remind me to hit you up for some porn before I go.  I bet you can even get the hard stuff- Your clientele into vamps or demons?”  Tom asked, but Jacob only mimed zipping his lips shut.  Tom nodded with an amused grin as he pulled a deck of cards from his pocket.  "Wanna play?  Maybe I can get some goods on the house.“

"Don’t know how to play.”  Jacob shrugged.  
  
“How can you hang out with Dean and not play cards?”

“I don’t hang out with him.  W-we work together.”

Tom was a little surprised by the idea that Dean didn’t spend recreational time with Jacob, but he supposed it made sense.  Dean had a family to get home to, including a young son.  He probably didn’t have the ability to socialize, even with a kid that he’d somewhat taken under his wing.  It seemed that Jacob trained under him as his primary work and ran a side business in his free time…

“What do you do for fun?”

“Read.”  
  
“Seriously, you live on a military base full of cool equipment and you have no sense of adventure?”  Jacob hesitated, then Tom grabbed his arm and pulled him off the truck bed.  "Come on, you’re gonna live a little.“

* * *

It was debatable whether Tom had technically ridden a motorcycle before, but Jacob didn’t need to know that.  For his thirteenth birthday, Dean had given Tom a dirt bike, which he used around camp.  His experience riding through bumpy terrain left him fairly nimble on a bike, but he’d never upped the power… until he had someone to impress.  
  
Stealing a motorcycle from the AFE vehicle depot was surprisingly easy.  The guards were more concerned with looking to outside threats.  Tom was literally able to grab the keys from the wall and fire it up without anyone glancing.  He assured Jacob that, if anything, they were testing the base’s security.

Tom drove, while Jacob clung to his back.  Jacob shouted a few course corrections in order to point Tom in the direction of the least guarded exit, then with a quick wave to the confused guards they were on the road.  
  
 They traveled up Highway 1 along the California coast for about an hour.  Tom wasn’t going anywhere in particular and Jacob was just enjoying feeling the wind in his hair.  Neither bothered trying to make small talk over the purr of the engine, which was fine by them.

Eventually, the road turned inland and Tom stopped, unprepared to risk missing the first oceanfront sunset since Gabin had taken him to the beach as a child.  Tom was ready to watch from the highway guardrail, but Jacob had a better idea.  
  
They rode back south, but turned off toward the water just before reaching the base at Fort Bragg.  Tom hadn’t ever seen a beach like it.  The sand looked as though it was made of glass beads & pebbles.  
  
"Welcome to Glass B-Beach.”  Jacob sifted his fingers through the sand.  "Used to be a dump.“  
  
Tom picked up a handful of the glass pebbles.  They were mostly clear, green, & brown- the standard colors for glass bottles. The whole place had been glass shards, worn smooth by the sea & time.  It was beautiful now, but a hundred years earlier in was no more than a landfill.  
  
He had seen towns that had been recently abandoned.  It was becoming a more & more common sight.  Scared humans huddled together against this strange new world, fortifying their cities while they leave their old lives behind.  Buildings, farms, cars, roads, bridges, dams, monuments to the past- anything that couldn’t be taken with them was left.  Tom supposed the world was one big dump.  
  
Yet seeing the picturesque beach, he wondered if a hundred years in the future their abandoned towns & cities would be reclaimed by the forests & fields.  Maybe that was Heaven’s promised paradise?  Why do you need divine intervention when you can just let the moss grow over the bones of humanity.  
  
"We’re playing against the clock.”  Tom muttered to himself as he sunk down to lay on the sand.  Jacob sat down next to him to watch the sun finish its descent below the horizon.  
  
“I’m in.  W-What’s the game?” 

* * *

 

11/06/2019

“Have you ever read my intake file?”

“I haven’t read it, but I know where it’s stored if you’re interested.”  Sam sipped his beer.

“You never wanted to sneak a peek?”  Dean offered Sam a hit from his pocket-sized vaporizer, but Sam shook his head.

They were both seated on the floor in Sam & Ruby’s new, larger cabin.  They were reclined against the base of the couch.  Each had their outer legs extended, creating two opposite sides of a square.  The remaining side had been constructed out of chairs & pillows.

In the middle, Dylaniel & Sa'dah entertained themselves.  Playing wasn’t exactly the right word.  Dylaniel was almost 18 months, though he didn’t quite act it.  He barely said “da” or “xe” and he was still crawling.  Instead of playing with toys, he tended to examine them quietly.

Sa'dah was 9 months old and was extremely affectionate.  She crawled around their play area collecting toys and giving them to Dylaniel.  Once she had given him every toy, she grabbed him in a hug.  Dylaniel started crying, so Dean scooped him up.

“It’s okay, Dylan.”  He held his son close to his chest to sooth him, but turned back to Sam.  Dean softened his voice, then continued.  "You can’t tell me that you’ve never been curious.“

"I’ll admit that I’ve wondered, but some of that stuff I just don’t want to see- you know we get the record of every time you slept with someone assuming that previous partner would’ve considered it a betrayal.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, that section accounts for like a quarter of our low-level offenses.”  Sam leaned forward to redirect Sa'dah away from Dylaniel and toward the toys.

“Oh god, high school…”  Dean cringed.  "And like every day after.“

"Yeah, I hate reading files with a lot of that kind of stuff.  I mean it doesn’t even really tell you much that’s useful about a person.  So you slept with a lot of people in the past, who cares-”  Sam had to stop Sa'dah from climbing up one of the armchairs.  He sat her down on his lap, with one arm he kept her from scurrying off and the other he waved a plush raccoon toy distractingly in front of her.  "It’s not even like having sex is a point against, it’s just the betrayal.“

"You guys really need to publish some new commandments or something.”  Dylaniel had calmed down, so Dean put him back on the floor near the pile of toys.  "Okay little man, back to work.“

Dylaniel picked up a soft plastic Harley Quinn toy.

"That’s Harley Quinn, the sidekick to The Joker.”  Dean explained.  “She used to be a shrink named Harleen Quinzel, but she had a mental break and turned to a life of crime.”

“You’re seriously gonna teach him all about comics, aren’t you?”

“You read all those bibles to the kids, I get to read mine to the kids too.”

“Some of my books actually have useful information.”

“So do mine.”  Dean turned back to his son. “Harley ended up in an unhealthy relationship with The Joker.  You don’t want that, I don’t care if whoever has a cool purple outfit.  Don’t take that kind of shit from anyone.”  Dylaniel stared at Dean uncertainly.  "If he understands everything that we’re saying I’m gonna be so embarrassed.“

They both watched Dylaniel watching them.  He had a habit of staring at objects and interactions that didn’t catch the attention of other babies.  It wasn’t really clear what was happening in his young mind.  They didn’t have a yardstick for measuring a nephilim’s development, so everyone just tried to treat him like a human as much as possible… but it was still a bit unnerving at times.

"You & Cas don’t do stuff around him, right?”  Sam asked quietly.

“I can barely kiss Cas in front of you.”  Dean glanced over at Sam.  "You & Ruby don’t… you know what, we’re changing the subject.  I can’t talk about this stuff with the kids right here.“

Sam released Sa'dah.  She crawled up to the pile of toys and began playing with a rubber hammer that squeaked when hit.  After a few good slams, the toy hammer was thrown.  Sam caught it with telekinesis and dropped it back into the pile.

"You’re going to have such a panic attack over the sex talk.”  Sam chuckled before having another sip of beer.

“Dude, I gave you the talk.  I’ve got this.  I’m fine.”  Dean sat up little straighter, but his voice betrayed a little discomfort.

“You gave me some stolen Hustlers for my 10th birthday.  It’s a miracle I ever had sex.”  Sa'dah inched closer to Dylaniel.  "Sadie, be gentle.“

Sam & Dean looked at each other, both unsure if they should separate the kids before any contact was made.  Dylaniel watched her approach.  He leaned away from her slightly, but didn’t try to crawl away.  She placed one hand on his arm.  His eyes widened.  Dean tried not to show how ready he was to snatch his son away.

"See, Dylan, you’re good.  Sadie’s just trying to play.”

Sa'dah put her other hand on Dylaniel’s foot.  Dylaniel’s giant wings popped into existence, and flailed in concern.  One wing knocked Sa'dah backwards onto the rug.  The wings weren’t very heavy, but their presence threw off Dylaniel’s center of gravity, causing him to fall onto his back.  He jerked and struggled against the awkward extra set of limbs.

Sam scooped up Sa'dah, who was more confused than upset.  She had blinked her eyes black in surprise when she fell and watched Dylaniel from Sam’s arms.

Dean carefully picked up the frantic Dylaniel.  He held his son against his chest, then gently folded the golden wings up.  With the wings fully drawn up around him, Dylaniel was almost entirely hidden except for his toes.  Dean stroked the wings to try to sooth him.

“It’s okay, Dylan.  Daddy’s got you.  You’re fine.  You did good.”  Dean whispered, then leaned his head back against the couch so that he was facing the ceiling.

“I think he’s getting better.”  Sam offered.

“Yeah, Dylan.”  Dean said while softly hugging his whimpering son.  "You hear that, you’re doing good- we’re gonna be fine.“ 


	12. 2020

5/15/2020

Sa’dah excitedly babbled at Dylaniel, who quietly watched her.  At a little over a year old she knew about two dozen words, but that didn’t stop her from talking up a storm.  No one was quite sure how many words Dylaniel knew because he seemed perfectly content to observe.  The spectacle was half cute and half exhausting to sit through for more than ten minutes.

“Do you know what she’s talking about Dyl?”  Ruby asked from her seat a few feet from where the infants were playing on the living room floor.  Dylaniel didn’t look up at her, he was either transfixed by Sa’dah or had given up on auditory input minutes earlier.  “Riveting conversation you two are having.”

Ruby was taking her turn watching the kids more or less on her own.  Dean had reluctantly agreed to join Cas in attend a meeting with the east coast officers- after two years of 80% personal leave it was about time he started weaning himself back into command.  Bobby was visiting some old friends, & Sam was giving Kaylee a lesson downstairs.  Tom had been around earlier in the late morning, but she hadn’t seen him recently.  That left her closely monitoring the Sa’dah & Dylaniel alone while listening for Alex potentially getting into trouble in his room.

“Ma.”  Sa’dah carefully stood up and tried to walk to Ruby, who dragged a pillow along the floor ready to break her daughter’s inevitable fall.  She made it three feet before she tumbled onto the pillow.

Dylaniel attempted to follow Sa’dah, but when he stood up he leaned too far forward and immediately started teetering.

“Dyl, you don’t have your wings out-”  Ruby started to warn, but it was too late.  She slid a pillow under him as he fell forward.  Most of him landed on the pillow, but his knee hit the hardwood floor and he began whimpering.  “Don’t cry.  You’re okay.”

“Mom.”  Dylaniel said between sobs.

“Oh Dyl.”  Ruby sighed, unsure whether it made sense to even correct him- especially with him being upset.  “I’m going to hug you, okay?”

“‘kay.”  Dylaniel managed.

She picked up Dylaniel’s favorite blanket, then wrapped it around him in an act that was nearly swaddling.  It was the easiest way to hold him without risking stressing him even more.  He mostly let her hug him, but Dean & Cas were the only people who could consistently make skin contact with Dylaniel without agitating the boy.  Wrapping him in the blanket soothed him enough that by the time Ruby got her arms around him, Dylaniel had stopped crying.  She held him for a few more seconds before venturing into delicate territory.

“Dyl, I’m sorry if this doesn’t make sense right now, but maybe when you get older- I’m not your mom.”  His bright blue eyes stared up at her.  He was completely unreadable.  “You have a dad & a xe, not a mom.  I’m Ruby, I’m kinda like your aunt because Sam is your uncle.  It’s like the other kids call Sam dad, but they call your dad Dean.  Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Dylaniel watched her for a moment, then nodded.  She couldn’t tell if he actually understood her or if he was just trying to give her the answer she wanted to hear.

“Can you say Ruby?”  He looked away from her.  “That’s okay.  I know you’re trying.”

He nodded again.  She hugged him a little tighter, then released him to continue playing with Sa’dah, who was crawling in circles around the play area.  Dylaniel dug through the toys and found his treasured soft plastic Batman.  He scooted along the floor back to Ruby, then held to out to her.  She accepted the toy.

“Thank you, Dyl.”

“Thank you.”  He replied.

“You know exactly what’s going on all the time, don’t you?”  She asked the nephilim, who just blinked up at her.

* * *

Ruby heard a floorboard behind her creak.  She turned to see Alex with an armful of sticks, candles, & Kaylee’s plush toy jaguar.  He froze, uncertain whether to try hiding the goods, lying, or some other technique.  Eventually, he settled on smiling in an attempt to be as cute as possible.

“You want to tell me what you’re up to?”  Ruby crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“Not really.”  Alex’s habitual honesty didn’t stop him from being as evasive as a Crossroads demon.

“And that’s your first clue you shouldn’t be doing it.”  She extended a hand.  “Give me the cat- and my candles.  What were you going to try?”

“I want to make a small specter.”  Alex confessed while handing over the toy and the candles.

“Sweetie,”  She sighed through a sympathetic smile, then looked down at the toy.  “that spell doesn’t work with a toy cat-  Those spells can be dangerous.  Where’d you even hear about it?”

“Tommy was talking about it.”  Alex’s eyes lit up at a thought.  “He was talking to a girl!  I saw him scrying her!  He wants to kiss her!”

“You’re not dodging this.”  Ruby warned.  “We’re gonna talk about casting safely-”

“But I didn’t do anything yet.”  He pouted.

“First of all, don’t put ‘yet’ on the end of the sentence.  It’s not doing you any favors.  Second,”  Ruby held up the candles.  “you know you’re not supposed to play with fire.”

“Candles are little fires.”  Alex explained with a shrug.  “I only got in trouble for big fires.”

“Little fires start big fires.”  She looked down at the toy cat and frowned.  “Do you know where Tom is?”

“He said he was gonna fish.”  Alex offered eager to move the discussion away from himself.

“Can you watch Dylaniel while I go talk with Tom real quick?”

“Okay.”  Alex agreed, hoping for some mitigated punishment based on good behavior.

Ruby picked up the highly mobile Sa’dah rather than leaving Alex to supervise both of them.  Sa’dah seemed a little confused to be leaving Dylaniel, but within seconds became distracted hugging her mom.  Ruby carried her out to the piers.

* * *

Tom was fishing off the end of the third pier.  A wicker basket held two whitefish.  He was painting his nails fascia while waiting for bites on a cast line.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

“Sure, what’s up?”  He was too busy finishing off his left hand to turn away from his work.

“Alex says he overheard you talking about summoning a lesser specter.”  Tom looked up at her with his brow furrowed, but he didn’t deny it.  “I just caught him getting ready to try blood magic on Mr. Whiskers.”

“Shit.”  Tom groaned, then hastily recapped the nail polish in order to give her his full attention.  “Sorry, I didn’t think anyone was home when I was going off about it yesterday.”

“How’d you even find out about it?”  She didn’t remember bringing any books on blood magic home from Hell.

“Morrison gave me some books.”

“Morrison?”

“When I visited his coven in Kalaupapa.”  A month earlier, Tom had gone on a weekend trip to visit one of Morrison’s covens.  It had been over a decade since he’d seen a full coven in action.  In theory he might someday lead a coven, but the only way that could happen is if he became accustomed to coven dynamics again.  

“So now you’re talking blood magic, trying to impress a girl?”  Ruby asked as Sa’dah started grabbing at her necklace.

“I-”  Tom shifted awkwardly.  “Morrison made it sound like I was a big deal.”

“You know what’s a bigger deal than talking blood magic?  Being able to do it.”  Ruby suggested.  “You’re probably the best student I’ve ever had, but we’ve got a little ways to go before you start using life & death in your spells- and it looks like you’ve got a hell of a ways to go in terms of treating the subject with respect.”

“I respect it- I do.”  Tom assured.  

“Killing for the craft is a huge responsibility.  It’s not about bragging rights.  Non-witches might be quick to judge you for it and lesser witches might be quick to emulate it- like your brother.”  Ruby paused to let her words sink in.  “We keep our strongest cards close to the chest.  I don’t care how amazing the girl is… What’s her name?”

“Moira.  She’s seventeen and she can already transmute minerals & some plants.”  Tom smiled wistfully despite his scolding.

“That’s pretty impressive.”  Ruby agreed.  Sa’dah grabbed at Ruby’s closest breast for a moment before Ruby mimed biting at her tiny hands.  With Sa’dah distracted by a giggling fit, Ruby turned her attention back to Tom.  “I can help you figure out a better way to woo her, but first you’re gonna help me explain to Alex why he shouldn’t start bloodletting all the dolls in the house.”

“Fuck.”  Tom sighed.

“Tell me about it.”  Ruby put her hand on Tom’s shoulder, then added.  “I’m serious though, about you being my best student.  You’re gonna do incredible stuff and younger than everyone else- that’ll get you all sorts of witchy girls.”

“Thanks mom.”  Tom rolled his eyes.

“Can you help keep an eye on Alex until your dad gets back?  I’ve got my hands full-”

“Mom?”  The sound of Kaylee calling for her inside their cabin interrupted her.

“Holy hell-”  Ruby lightly tugged Tom’s earlobe.  “Okay, Casanova.  I’m gonna check on Kaylee.  You pack up, then come on in, help me sort Alex out and keep an eye on Sa’dah & Dyl.”

“I’m catching dinner.”

“I need some backup- one more fish, after that you’re just making leftovers.”

Kaylee was supposed to be in Hell with Sam for at least another hour.  They’d started having lessons, which recently included going into the Pits and dealing with prisoners.  It was a worrying, but important part of her education.  The fact that she’d abruptly come home didn’t bode well.

* * *

Ruby returned to their cabin in search of her oldest daughter.  When she entered cabin, Alex was standing precariously on the back of a chair, trying to access the top shelf of tomes in the living room bookcase.  She hooked her free arm around his middle and pulled him down.

“Watch your cousin.”  She instructed as she dropped Alex next to the nephilim.

“He’s not going anywhere.”  Alex offered in defense of his actions as Ruby waved her free hand in acknowledgment while hurrying around looking for Kaylee.

She found Kaylee sitting on the floor next to her bed.  The 10 year old was wearing black boots, tending to indicate that she’s visited the rougher & messier Pits of Hell.  She gently kicking a cricket ball from one foot to the other.

“You’re home early.”  Ruby sat down on the bed, inviting Kaylee to explain the situation to her.

“I told dad I wasn’t feeling well.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes & no.”  Kaylee nudged the ball across the floor away from her.  “I can’t do the stuff dad does.”

“Which stuff?”  Ruby asked while Sa’dah started wriggling impatiently.  “Do you mean powers or ruling?”

“Both.”

“You’re still learning.  It took him a long time to figure out how to do everything.”  Ruby reassured.  “And even if it turns out that you can’t use powers as well as him, that doesn’t mean you can’t do great things.  I can’t use powers and I can still keep people in line.”

“But I’m supposed to be like dad.”  Kaylee muttered.  Ruby repositioned Sa’dah, then tapped Kaylee with her toe causing her to finally meet her mom’s eyes.

“You’re not supposed to be like anyone.  You’re just you and that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.  Everyone who says otherwise can go to Hell and then you can flay them for insubordination.”  Ruby offered with a little smile.  “Knowing how to be a smart leader takes time & a good teacher, which you have.  And you don’t need powers to get respect.”

“How do I get respect if I’m not strong?”  Kaylee held her hand out toward the cricket ball.  It very slowly starting rolling back to her, but halfway through her hand dropped to the floor with fatigue and the ball stopped rolling.

“Powers don’t make you strong- magic doesn’t either.”  Ruby answered while running her fingers through Sa’dah’s hair as she sleepily nuzzled Ruby’s neck.  “Being strong is… getting back up when life knocks you on your ass and doing what you know is right even when you know it’s gonna be hard.”

“I’m on my ass.”  Kaylee pointed to herself laying on the floor.  “How do I get back up?”

“Tell me what got you down?”  Ruby switched over to running her fingers through Kaylee’s hair.

“We went to a dungeon… I thought I could do it, but I can’t- dad told me he threw up the first time he saw a dungeon too.”  Kaylee scowled.  “But I’m more demon than him…”

“And your dad was more than twice your age- he’d killed people by that point in his life.  You gotta stop being so hard on yourself.”  Ruby thought for a moment, then tried another approach.  “I promise you did something awesome today.  Can you tell me something you did that you’re proud of?”

“I taught Garm a new trick.”  Ruby could her a little more enthusiasm in her daughter’s voice.  “Dad said that it takes trainers months to get the hounds to listen like they do with me.”

“See, the Abyss is listening, you’ve just gotta find your voice.”

“And not throw up.”  Kaylee added.

“Does the thought of cleaning & cooking fish for dinner make you feel sick?”

“No.”

“You’re miles ahead of your dad.”

“No wonder I’m tired.”  Kaylee muttered while staring at the cricket ball.

“Want to help me put the tikes down for a nap?”  Ruby pointed to Sa’dah, who was already drooling all over her.

* * *

When Sam arrived home, he opened the bedroom door to find Ruby in their bed with Sa’dah dosing on her chest.  On one side of her, Dylaniel was sleeping wrapped in his blanket, with Kaylee flanking the two year old while she also slept.  On the other side of the bed, Tom had been reading a guide to casting basics to Alex, who fell asleep within minutes of the lesson.  After losing his audience, Tom decided he might as well take a nap rather than risk being assigned any additional chores.  And subsequently Alex had somehow ended up sprawled across Tom’s torso.

Ruby used her free arm toward the center of the bed to gesture for Sam to come closer.  He carefully climbed into the gap between Ruby & Alex.  Laying on his side he kissed Ruby’s cheek.

“I blame you for this.”  Ruby whispered to him.

“Of all the things I’ve ever been accused of, this one I’ll happily confess to.”  He grinned.  “But you have to admit the kids take after you.”  

“Just their charm, wit, sense of adventure-”

“Humor.”  Sa’dah cooed softly in her sleep, rustled, then woke up just long enough to grab Sam’s collar.

“Now you’re trapped too.”  She smirked at him.

“Good.”  They kissed for about a second before Alex shifted in his sleep and kicked Sam in the ass.  “They definitely take after you.”


	13. 2021

6/15/2021

Dean stepped out into the street lined with fallen angels, demons, hunters, humans, & more.  His left hand tightly held Cas' hand, and his right arm carried their son.  Dyl had his arms wrapped around his dad's neck.  The three year old anxiously pulled his massive golden wings close, which wrapped Dean's whole upper body.  Dean kissed Dyl's forehead and whispered that it would be okay.

The boy's golden wings were a poignant symbol- they were the same shape as Cas' but the color gold was reserved for Michael alone.  Dean's carried grace had stolen that exclusivity from the Archangel, and more so, the privilege had been given to a nephilim.

There had never been a couple to live so openly in defiance of Heaven's edict against relationships with humans.  There had never been a nephilim that wasn't hidden at all costs... and this nephilim was the Sword of Heaven.  To Heaven, in some respects the boy was the most despised creature on Earth and yet he was one of the two most sacred humans outside of prophets.

Dean & Cas had debated whether to expose their son to the spotlight that had fixed itself on them a decade earlier.  The rumor had slipped out that Dean had had a child and it was fairly common knowledge that Cas & he were married.  Though many versions of the initial rumor had spread, and one of the least retold iterations was the truth.  It had been so hard to believe that they would have a nephilim.  And their choice to go public with it was politically earth shattering.

To all of the onlookers it was big news, Dean & Cas were both celebrities and commanders of the army.  But to the fallen angels in the crowd it marked the beginning of an all new age.  The couple had inspired a revolution in the way fallen angels treated humans, including starting some intimate relationships.  And to see them showing their son with pride gave an extra level of validation & courage to the younger couples.

After they passed several hundred onlookers, Gabriel appeared in the middle of the street before them.  The Archangel had stripped the concealment from his vessel so that he was identifiable to other angels.  Whispers spread through the crowd as the fallen angels explained that he was their long lost Archangel.

"Hey kiddo, I'm your uncle Gabe."  The Archangel reached out to touch the boy, in a gesture that unnerved the crowd.  To the public it was unclear where he came down on the issue of nephilim, which caused concerned murmurs.  But Dean & Cas trusted Gabriel to understand the importance of the moment.  Gabriel tussled Dylaniel's hair, then patted his cheek.  "You're going to do such great things and you don't even know it."

Gabriel hugged Cas, then patted Dean's shoulder.  He looked over Dylaniel’s wings for a few seconds with an uncharacteristically pensive expression.

"I'm glad you could make it."  Cas smiled at his brother.

"Are you kidding?  I wouldn't miss this for all of Heaven."

“All of Heaven may have been your price of admission.”  Dean commented.  After years of conflict between Earth & Heaven, Gabriel had publicly picked his side.  The Archangel paused a beat, but didn’t acknowledge Dean’s words.

"Why didn't someone say nephilim were so damn cute?"  Gabriel suddenly pointed to Dean in concern.  "Just don't show him to Kali, she's part mother goddess after all."


	14. 2022

Scenes to come


	15. 2023

4/18/2023

Cas watched Dean replace his hearing aid’s battery.  He was hunched over his nightstand, with a set of small screwdrivers.  Cas moved to stand in front of Dean and waited.  Technically, Dean could hear using just his right ear, but thanks to the tinnitus words were misunderstood frequently enough that Cas preferred to not waste his breath.  When Dean noticed Cas somberly waiting to talk to him, he looked away from and worked a little slower.  Cas tilted his head & crossed his arms, indicating that Dean better stop screwing around.  

“You should ask Gabriel to restore your hearing.  He might be able to undo the damage.”  Cas said as soon as Dean had his hearing aid back in.

“I don’t need his help.”

“You’re disabled.”

“And yet I can still kick a seraphim’s ass.”  Dean mimed a stabbing motion with a screwdriver.  His tone was a bit more snarky than usual.  He didn’t like it when people called him disabled- he was more capable than 99% of people, angels & demons included.

“I’m serious, you’re putting yourself in danger.”

“I’m constantly putting myself in danger.”  He smiled, but Cas didn’t fall for the lighthearted feign.  This time Dean wasn’t going be able to dodge the issue.

“This is different and you know it.  You’re just being stubborn.”  Cas sighed.  "Your right ear’s getting worse, isn’t it?“

"It comes & goes.”  Dean avoided looking at Cas while answering by putting his tool kit back into the small wooden set of drawers on his nightstand.

“That’s not what I asked.”  Cas grabbed Dean’s jaw and turned it so that their eyes met.  "I know you don’t like asking for help, especially from Gabriel, but you need to take better care of yourself.  Being reckless because you’re proud isn’t fair to me or Dylaniel.“

Dean wrapped his arms around Cas’ waist, hugging him.  He looked up at Cas thoughtfully.  

"Can’t I just be an inspirational lesson for him in overcoming adversity?”  He joked, but his voice had softened in resignation.

“You’d be plenty adverse with your hearing fully intact.”  Cas said while fixing Dean’s hair to cover the visible piece of the hearing aid, the way Dean liked it.

“Next time we see Gabe, if there’s a good moment I’ll ask him.  But I’m not begging or taking any shit from him.”

* * *

5/3/2023

“Hael!”  Dean rushed over to the door and hugged her before she got both feet through the threshold.  After giving her a kiss on the cheek, he looked her over.  It’d been over a year since she’s moved to the Eastern European front.  She’d grown her blond hair out even further and formed it into a French braid.  It was strange to see her in civilian clothes, but today was no day for work.

“It’s good to see you.”  She offered.  “I’m sorry I missed Dylaniel’s last birthday.”

“It’s okay.  We know how it is.”

“Actually, I’d like you to meet some people.”

She moved further into the living room of the beach house they’d rented for the occasion.  A man with dark brown hair and grey eyes came in.  He was holding a baby girl in a light blue dress, that matched her blue eyes.

“This is Radomir, my boyfriend.”  Hael smiled nervously.  “And this is Miroslava, our daughter.”

Dean was dumbstruck.  Hael had told him that she was settling into her new deployment well, but she’d completely failed to mention having a boyfriend, let alone kid.  He was a bit too shocked to offer congratulations or interrogate the guy, but his alarm must’ve been close enough to a prayer for help because Cas was immediately at his elbow.

“It’s nice to meet you.”  Radomir extended his hand and Dean shook it.  "I’ve met dozens of her siblings, but you’re the person I’ve been most nervous to meet.“

"You’re human.”  Dean managed.  

“Yes.  I’m from Novi Sad.”  Radomir watched Dean for any sort of reaction, but he was at a loss.

“That’s in Serbia.”  Cas explained for Dean, who pursed his lips in embarrassment at the entire situation.

“Would you like to hold Miro?”  Hael offered, mercifully changing the subject.

It was fairly common for angels to show him & Cas their children.  He wasn’t sure if the angels were just showing him for their own pride, as thanks, or seeking some sort of blessing, but it always secretly delighted him.  He had to admit that he was a big softy when it came to kids.  Somewhere down the line he’d become the unofficial uncle of upwards of thirty nephilim and he was perfectly fine with that.

But Miroslava was different, by blood she was Dylaniel’s half-sister.  Dean held her tiny form with even more reverence than usual.  He could see the resemblance, which made him strangely aware of what must be the differences between Dylaniel’s appearance & his own.

“We were wondering if you & Cas would mind being her godparents.”  Hael asked hopefully.

“My sisters wouldn’t know how to care for a nephilim if anything were to happen to us.”  Added Radomir.

“Of- of course.”  Dean was humbled by them potentially entrusting their daughter to him & Cas.

“No way- I bet you I could eat a whole lightbulb without powers!“  Was shouted from the back deck of the house where the party was in full swing.

"We’d keep her away from Gabriel.”  Dean assured.

* * *

Cas grabbed the next present off the pile.  After removing the card, he handed the box to Dylaniel.  The boy waited patiently for his xe to read the card aloud.  Though Gabriel snapped his fingers, removing all the tape that was securing the brightly colored wrapping paper.

“This one is from Mary.  'Wishing you a joyous birthday. -  Love, your bua’.”

Dylaniel carefully removed the wrapping paper, then opened the box to reveal a kid’s blue & gold cricket uniform and a small cricket bat signed by the entire Rajasthan Royals.  Kali nodded with quiet approval.  Tom patted Dylaniel’s head, then picked up and excitedly began twirling the bat to test its balance.

“It’s begun.”  Dean muttered.

“Dyl, this is a really nice bat.  You’ll be hitting like Bradman himself.”  Tom handed him back the bat.  A subtle smile flickered on Dylaniel’s face as he held the bat with more conviction.

Gabriel stepped forward with a fairly large rectangular box, which nearly dwarfed the young boy.

“Kali wanted to give him a lion cub, but I told her you’re allergic to cats-”  Gabriel started explaining, but was interrupted when Dean put his hand on the box’s lid to prevent it from being opened immediately.

“Of all the things- that’s what you found wrong with giving a five year old a lion?”  Dean asked.

“I don’t see your point.”

“We normally live in a cold climate.”  Cas added, which made Dean cover his face with his hands.

“He wanted it to be wearing a sweater.”  Kali added, clearly not thrilled by the idea.

“It would’ve been adorable!”  Gabriel countered.

“Does your present need air holes?”  Dean asked, as he checked the box for any ominous signs.

“Technically animals don’t need air holes if the box is only closed for a short time.”  Cas corrected.  Gabriel pointed to Cas and nodded in agreement.  "It’s a flawed indicator.“

"Does it have sharp- you know what, fuck it.  Hey Dylan, daddy’s gonna open the present from Uncle Gabe & Kali.”  Dean took the box, then looked warily at Gabe & Kali.  "If this thing…“

"You’ll be fine.”  Kali assured as Dean removed the lid.

“And we have another one for the ‘when you’re older’ pile.”  Dean pulled a ¾ length golden scimitar out of the box.  Its handle was engraved with different types of animals eating each other.  "Do we really have to make a no weapons rule?“

"He’s probably too little to lift the thing, what’s he gonna do?”  Gabriel said with a shrug, then spoke to Dylaniel.  "That’s one of your mani’s swords.“

"Can I get a do over on my present?”  Asked Sam with a bashful grin.

“What, did you get him the same sword?”  Dean asked, rolling his eyes.

“I told you we shouldn’t have brought a hellhound pup.”  Ruby said to Sam, causing Dean to pick up Dylaniel and look around quickly.

“She’s joking.  No, we just got him a tricycle.”

* * *

After presents & pie, the party had quieted down.  Kali & Ruby made a bonfire a little bit down the beach, which attracted most of the kids and their respective guardians.  Gabriel had lingered on the deck in order to fill Sam’s shoes & laptop bag with sand.  Dean decided to take the opportunity to talk to Gabriel one on one about his hearing.  

“Gabe, can I talk to you for a sec?”  He asked between sips of his beer, a gesture meant to disguise his discomfort.

“So far you seem to be doing okay, but don’t hurt yourself.”  The Archangel didn’t bother looking up from his work, but Dean still tried not to roll his eyes.

“Cas is getting worried about my hearing.  He was wondering if you could fix it.”

“You want my help?”  Gabriel stared up at him with renewed interest.

“Cas wants your help and I want Cas to be happy.”

“Uh hm.”

“Dammit, don’t act like this is some huge pain in your ass.  All you have to do is snap your fingers- you put more effort into the kids’ birthday presents.”  Dean gesture at the scimitar with his half-drunk beer.

“But I like the kids more than you.”  Gabriel grinned, then stood up.  "Okay, okay.  I’ll lay some hands on you- just don’t get any ideas, Kali’s pretty possessive.“

Dean took a deep breath to calm himself down.  The last thing he needed was to deal with the ramifications of punching Gabriel in the face.  Luckily, Cas walked over, providing some extra incentive not to blow the whole interaction up.  Cas had probably guessed what they were discussing, since it was the only reason Dean would risk being alone with Gabriel.

The Archangel snapped his fingers, then scowled.  Dean could still hear his tinnitus.  Gabriel placed one hand over each of Dean’s ears and closed his eyes in concentration.  After a few seconds he lowered his hands.

"Well…”  Gabriel looked a little disappointed.  "You might’ve been fighting a seraphim, but that wasn’t all the whammy that got laid on you.  What even happened?“

"He did a thing where he held his hand at me and his eyes glowed, but everything went black.  Then I woke up a ways down the road.”

“A seraphim detonating itself would boost the power enough to knock it into the next tier of healing, Archangel territory… but that doesn’t explain why I’m having trouble or how you survived.  Humans don’t just walk away from seraphim dropping that kind of energy next to them.”

“Dean might not have been immediately next to him.  I tried to throw Dean out of the way.”  Suggested Cas.

“Physically throw or with powers?”  Gabriel asked Cas, who hesitated.   Gabriel looked at Dean with newfound curiosity.  "It sounds like you got double whammied at the same time.  Even just that extra bit of juice seems to be putting you out of my range.“

"You can’t fix my hearing?”  Dean asked.  For years he hadn’t been planning on Gabriel restoring it, but now that even the possibility was gone the loss shook him.

“When you tally up everything that was laid on you at once- Looks like… that’s just bad luck.”

* * *

Dean put on a good effort to be the cheerful host, but Cas was incredibly quiet for the rest of the night.  After the guests had left, the kids were put to bed and Sam & Ruby snuck off to go desecrate one of the waterfront gazebos.  Dean found Cas sitting by the embers of the bonfire.  He threw some kindling on, then sat down next to Cas and waited for there to be enough light to help him see Cas’ lips.

“Talk to me.”

"You’re hurt because of me.”  Cas spoke quietly.  Dean wrapped an arm around Cas, pulling him into something like a seated hug.

“I’m alive because of you.  I would’ve been completely fried if you hadn’t knocked me back.  And I’m not hurt, I just carry a little extra piece of tech.”  Dean smiled sadly.  “I’m like Geordi La Forge, but minus the degree.”

“Your right ear is getting worse.  I’ve seen it.”  The tinnitus was mostly annoying, but every once in awhile the noise would be so oppressive it would give him a migraine.  Every few days he’d become overwhelmed by it.  He’d tried nearly everything to dull the pain, but more & more often the only thing that would work was either smoking until he was essentially nonfunctional or having Cas knock him out completely.

“Mary said it might happen, no big surprise.”  Mary’s medical experience was strictly limited to human medicine, so he’d taken her prognosis with a grain of salt.  But he still liked to read up on advances in assistive hearing technology when Cas wasn’t looking.  He had his pride yes, but he wasn’t a complete idiot.  Dean sighed.  "Actually, I’ve been thinking about it and I’m wondering… is it better to keep going like this or… what if we just knock my right ear down to almost nothing also and I wear two aids- or with both ears gone I could get one of those implants?“

He didn’t like the idea of voluntarily losing the remainder of his natural hearing, but it would remove a growing source of crippling pain that could sneak up on him with very little notice.  There were obvious risks to relying exclusively on technology for one of his senses, but there were risks trying to run an army or engage in combat when his concentration was spotty at best.

"Are you sure about doing that?”

“If we have the damage done by a human, then it can always be reversed if there’s trouble.”  Dean suggested, trying to make the idea less upsetting.

“You’re assuming you’ll have an angel with you when you’re in trouble.”

"I don’t keep you around exclusively for the sex.” 


	16. 2024

Scenes to come


	17. 2025

2/14/2025

"We're getting hit pretty hard right now.  Angels are piling up on our gates, thirty deep on some of them."  Sam explained to Ruby.  He spoke to her through the goblet of blood on his desk.  That was the best form of communication between Hell & Earth, but the angelic presence at the gates was causing some mild to moderate interference.  "We’re having to fortify.  I might be stuck down here for awhile."

All thirty three gates were under assault, the six main gates were pressed almost to the breaking point.  Ten of the less important gates were sabotaged from the inside in order to prevent them from opening, allowing defensive forces to be reallocated to the other twenty three.  After this storm was weathered they could repair the sabotaged gates without too much difficulty.  That tactic pissed Hell’s engineering caste off to no end, but until they figured out how to make better seals on the gates it would have to do.

"Any chance you could send up a Knight or someone with some gusto up before things lockdown too tight?  I'm gonna try moving a palette of category 3 anti-angel bombs to our Boston base.  I'd send an angel to babysit it, but that sounds like asking for friendly fire."

"I'll send Mir up to you."  Sam glanced at Mir, who nodded in agreement.  The Knight was tough & stubborn enough to happily run Heaven's growing blockade.  He disappeared.  "He should be there by the time you get this."

“He’s here.  I’ll-”  The signal cut out.  “you after”  Sam sighed at the poor signal quality.  “this bullshit.”

“Ruby, it’s getting super choppy.  We’ll talk afterward.”  Sam tapped the surface of the blood to end the call, then left his office.  When he stepped out onto one of the Citadel’s exterior walkways he pursed his lips and rested his elbows on the stone half wall as he watched the ominous spectacle.  Massive currents of demon clouds spiralled upward from the closest quadrant of Central District toward the Howling Gate.  

The Howling Gate was one of the six Devil’s Gates located directly above Central, but it was the only one that was catastrophically damaged.  As it was, the gate couldn’t be wholly sealed without destroying it entirely and potentially ruining a large section of the land below it.  If Heaven kept pressing on all their gates, the angels would eventually realize that this one buckled ever so slightly more… and if Heaven hit it with everything they had, there’d be another battlefront.

Sam looked down at the half wall he was resting against.  A purple vine with small white & green bell shaped flowers was growing on it.  He smiled at the unique creature, then waved an assistant over to him.  The demon approached and waited for instruction.

“Cecily, I want the handlers ready to go.  If the angels break through, I want to hit them with everything we’ve got.  Let them see what fiends they dropped down here to be forgotten.”

* * *

Mir appeared next to Ruby, then offered a thin smile and nod.  She winked at him and turned her attention back to her phone call.

“He’s here.  I’ll see you after all of this bullshit with the gates.”

“Ruby-”  The signal cut out.  “choppy”  Sam was undoubtedly stating the obvious.  “afterwards.”  He hung up.  She turned to Mir and gestured for him to follow her.

“These are moderately high powered angel fucking bombs.”  She spoke in Abyssal for the Knight’s benefit and it obscure her language from any angels that might overhear.  “Depending on the state of the angel, one of these could be lethal.  Mostly it’ll just overload their powers, causing some burn back on them- maybe permanent damage.  If you have to use these be conservative- assume a kill for friendly fire and sub-maiming for an enemy.  Blast radius is thirty feet give or take and there is a twenty second fallout period, so mind the wind.  Any questions?”

Mir stared at her, then picked up one of the rectangular prisms.  He turned it over a few times, pointed at it’s unclear labeling, then shrugged.

“You arm it by pulling the tab, then it has a three second fuse.”  She started to continue walking then turned back to him suddenly.  “It will cause a couple foot physical explosion, so don’t just hold it in your hand.”

Mir nodded in understanding, then returned the bomb to its crate as an alarm started blaring.  Ruby ran into a small command room.  The lone angel among the group was unconscious on the floor and several short range radios were broadcasting warnings of shots fired around the perimeter.  Mir was about to leave to join the fight, but Ruby put her hand on his arm.  Something about the situation was wrong.  Over the chaos, the comm tech shouted that they’d lost their connection with the other bases.

“Fuck the perimeter- Pull everyone in and fortify the core buildings!”  Ruby ordered.  “They’re after something and it’s not our lawn.  Coles & Brown, you’re with me!”  

She ran out of the command room, followed by Mir and the two soldiers.  She took them to the warehouse that stored a small cache of weapons.  A dozen troops were falling back from their positions outside when they arrived.  After taking point at the doors, they noticed Ruby, who was looking over the descriptions on the crates.

“What’re we fighting?”  Asked Ruby.

"Templars and maybe a few angels."  Answered one of the soldiers.

Ruby indicated for Mir to tear the lid off of the crate in front of her, which he did.  She pulled out a belt of grenades and threw it to a nearby soldier.

"If the bullets don't work, tag them with these, then try for headshots.  How many are there?"  Their stockpile wasn't large, but it had more than enough stuff to bite them in the ass if Heaven managed to seize it.  As frustrating as it would be to lose all this hard work, she could easily rig the lot to detonate without leveling the whole base.

"Not many- maybe eight on this entrance... It's weird, they're not really trying to advance."  Said the lookout.

"They've got us cut off & hunkered down."  Ruby mused.  "They have to know we're fortifying as we speak... Why didn't they try following you guys in?"

"Maybe they're waiting for backup?"

"They planned this- we're the ones waiting on backup... They hit our angels, our comms- Something is going on, it's just not here."  Ruby grabbed one of the anti-angel bombs, then pointed to Coles.  "Hold this building or use five of the AM-8's to drop it to the ground.  I'm gonna go find out what the fuck they're after."

Mir followed Ruby back toward the command room, but stopped a few feet out the door.  She stumbled from a stinging sensation in her chest, but Mir softly grabbed her to offer support.  The sensation was pure fear, adrenaline, & pain but it was coming through the link to her coven.  It wasn't coming from any of the older children's schools.  It wasn't coming from Flo, who was on another base a few miles away.  It was Tom.  Their home was being attacked, it was the real target.

“Camp, now.”  She said to Mir, then disappeared.

* * *

Cas had to sit down.  Like many of the angels in the lower choirs he'd been weakened by the telepathic attack on pirate radio.  He had been listening to a conversation between Dean & two comm techs right before the attack.  There had been a strange spike in the power draw across multiple bases, which had thrown their network out of sync for some reason.  Dean was in the process of advocating the trusty approach of rebooting all systems when it began.

The three angels in the operation room all clutched their heads in screeching agony.  Dean caught Cas as he became dizzy and fell.  Thankfully, a few of the higher choir angels or maybe just Gabriel severed the whole connection before too much damage could be done.  Dean helped Cas over to a ratty couch to recover.

"What just happened?"  Dean asked as he knelt down to look at Cas.

"Pirate radio, the signal, it was too intense.  Someone took down the connection."  Cas looked more pale than usual.  "We’re under attack."

"Primary network is down!"  Shouted a tech across the room.  "I can't ping any of the other bases."

"We need to find a way to get comms back up.  Call their cells, pop over angels, fucking smoke signals- get it up now!"  Dean yelled as he rushed to the closest mic for the internal speaker system.  After switching it on, he addressed the base.  "Incoming, repeat incoming.  Enemies unknown."

There was the deep rumble of an explosion outside.  Everyone braced for a moment to see if their building was affected, but there wasn't any obvious damage.  Despite being a little shaken, Cas hurried beside Dean & a dozen other combat trained soldiers to join the fight.  As they were running through a corridor, Cas grabbed Dean's arm and stopped.

"Are you okay?"  Dean asked when he saw the look of concern on Cas’ face.

"He's praying to us."  Dean didn't need to ask who, Dylaniel was the only person who addressed prays to both of them.  He looked around and his heart hit the ground.

"It's a feign.  They're going after the kids."

* * *

Bobby finished his morning coffee, then took a stroll around their little camp.  It was fairly quiet nowadays.  Most of the children had gone off to a private school in northern Oregon that was opened minded towards arcana.  The intention was to get the human children better integrated into society with the hopes that they could have the choice of whether to join the AFE or enter civilian life.  All but two of the coven's children were in college by now.  

Tom had opted not to attend college to Sam's unvoiced disappoint.  He was twenty one and could've easily gone out to make his way in the world.  Despite only having the equivalent of a high school education, he was incredibly well rounded and quick on the uptake.  His dad saw his own sophisticated thoughtfulness in him.  His mom saw her sense of innovation in him.  And his uncle Dean saw his street smarts in him.

It's possible that he would've left home earlier if the younger kids hadn't been born.  He was 11 when Alex was born and 15 when Dylaniel & Sa'dah were born.  The age difference gave him more of a caretaker relationship with the kids than he had with Kaylee.  He opted to continue studying the craft and working on his combat skills, while helping to take care of his younger siblings & cousin.

While Tom was passable, all the other kids weren't human and with a little diligence almost anyone with their ear to the ground could figure it out.  Angels, demons, & non-humans had gone mainstream in recent years.  There was growing tension between factions as everyone was adjusting to their new and exposed reality.  That meant that given enough time in an integrated school setting, the kids would probably be found out.  Within the current political environment, they didn't have the option of a civilian life.  Despite the inevitable track towards service, the adults tried to intersperse a wide range of education.  

Bobby had been debating when to start Dylaniel & Sa'dah on firearms training.  They were six & five years old respectively, which was still a bit too young.  Neither of them had been very receptive to wrestling or boxing lessons.  Dylaniel's aversion to most types of physical contact had left him overly evasive in the ring.  Sa'dah of course hated conflict and didn't like the idea of risking injuries.

The kids were all having breakfast in the converted visitor's center’s dining hall, so he decided to stop in at Belda's cabin to chat about plans for the rest of the day.  They pulled up chairs at her small dining table when there was a cry for help from the kids.  As they turned to look out the window, a dozen angels appeared between the buildings.

* * *

"You never cook the eggs enough."  Alex complained to Tom, who dumped a scoop of scrambled eggs on the younger boy's plate regardless.

"If you want to cook breakfast, by all means.  I'll teach you how to use the stove & everything."  Tom said, though he didn’t expect Alex to take him up on the offer.

"I don't need a stove."  Alex replied while holding his hand over the eggs and cooking them more with The First Light.

"Good luck stirring anything when you need both hands for burners."

"I'll figure it out.- Kay could help me."

"I'm not helping you every time you want to cook.”  Objected Kaylee.  “We have tech for a reason, so we don't have to stand around holding pans."

"You just don't like the stove."  Tom muttered as he served eggs to Sa’dah & Dylaniel.

"Are eggs animals?"  Asked Sa'dah as she stared at her plate.

"No."  Replied Kaylee, causing Sa'dah to smile and pick up her fork.  

A week earlier Sa’dah had learned that steaks come from cows and had since regarded all food with newfound caution.  No one was particularly surprised by her decision to avoid eating animals, though after the fact Sam had playfully gloated to Dean.  The jury was still out on whether Dylaniel would also join team vegetarian, but Dean & Sam had exchanged a glance when Dylaniel decided to forego his burger at the discovery of what beef really entailed.

“Do you all know how you want to spend the afternoon?”  Tom asked the younger kids.  Kaylee still had a backlog of reading assignments to get through, but Alex had sped through his math homework for the  remainder of the week.  Dylaniel & Sa’dah were still learning to read & write, but they generally studied at night when it was too dark to do activities outside.

“Can we visit the tree?”  Sa’dah asked hopefully.  She had a favorite tree about half a mile from camp.  No one was entirely sure what she saw in it, but she insisted that it was the most beautiful tree she’d seen on Earth.  All in all, she hadn’t seen that many Earth trees, only the ones within two miles of their camp.  But Sa’dah had very strong opinions on nature.

“Sure, but on our way there you’re going to count the other trees you see.”  Tom said with a smile.  “Let’s see if we can get a sense of how big a hundred is.  Maybe on the way we can look for tracks-”

Dylaniel's eyes widened and flashed with blue light.  He dropped his fork, then looked around in a stupor.  Tom stopped talking and hurried over to the boy to make sure he wasn't having a fit.  They'd never seen him act like that before and had no idea what was happening.

"We need help!"  Kaylee yelled out the open window as she got up to aid Tom.

"Angels are coming."  Dylaniel said in a confused voice.  Tom, Kaylee, & Alex exchanged a concerned look.  "They're coming now."

Tom released Dylaniel and ran to the buffet to grab his angel blade.  Alex caught Dylaniel, who looked like he was on the verge of passing out.  Kaylee took up position to form the third side of a triangle around Dylaniel & Sa'dah, then she looked down at the nephilim.

"Dyl, pray for your parents."

* * *

Dean & Cas touched down in the center of camp with their blades drawn.  They were immediately engaged by five nearby angels.  After quickly dropping two of the attackers,  Dean was able to tumble passed the other three and make a break for Belda’s, where there was already a fight in the works.  

Bobby’s left shoulder was bleeding from a deep cut, but the old hunter was still fighting an angel, blade to blade.  Dean charged the angel from behind, killing her with a single stab through the back.  As he dropped her, he saw Belda bleeding profusely from a slash to her neck on the floor.  

“Cas!”  Dean yelled as he tried to apply pressure.  A second later, Cas appeared at Dean’s side.  The angel had three minor cuts, but seemed alright.

“Go find the kids.”  Cas instructed Dean & Bobby as he knelt down to tend to Belda.

“This way.”  Bobby said, then started running for the visitor’s center with Dean on his heals.  The visitor’s center had eight angels in it, but the kids weren’t there.  For a moment, Dean was panicked thinking that maybe they’d been taken, but then he noticed that the angels were still searching for them.  Five dead bodies on the floor indicated that the kids had put up a fight before fleeing.

There was a slight hesitation on Bobby & Dean’s part as they faced down an eight to two fight, but two other women appeared on the opposite side of the large dining hall.  Dean sighed at the sight of Anael- it seemed that angel to angel communication wasn’t entirely down.  She’d brought a friend, who he could only assume was her partner, Jieshi.

It was a complete brawl.  Dean took one angel down in less two swings, but his thigh was cut by another and he was knocked over into a table.  Bobby took out the angel that shoved Dean, but then he had to dodge as Jieshi was telekinetically thrown across the room and through a window.  The demon blinked back into the hall before she even hit the ground, but the momentum of the throw still caused her to roll across the floor, knocking over an enemy angel.  Anael killed the two angels closest to her before teleporting closer to help protect Dean & Bobby.

Ruby & Mir arrived in time to see half a dozen angels appear in the center of camp.  She assessed the clearing for any friendly fire, then pulled the tab on her anti-angel bomb and threw it toward the group.  A moment later, Cas came out of Belda’s cabin nearby.  Ruby didn’t even have time to curse.  She blinked to just in front of where she’d thrown the bomb, caught it in mid air and tried to throw it away from Cas’ direction.  The blast was a little too close for comfort and she was knocked back into the pack of angels.

Despite having some minor burns, the angels behind her were in much worse shape.  The six angels were bleeding from their mouths & eyes while convulsing on the ground around her.  Mir hurried over to help her up and finish killing the angels.  Cas had the good judgment to stay away from the immediate blast area.  

“Where’re the kids?”  Ruby asked Cas as she staggered toward the fight that was finishing up in the visitor’s center.

“I don’t know.”  Cas’ eyes glowed blue as he looked around.

Cas & Ruby entered the dining hall as Jieshi was killing the last angel.  Everyone scrambled to start looking for the kids, when Ruby held up her hand.  She could sense Tom- he was hurt somewhere nearby.  

“His fucking forts.”  Ruby muttered.  “They’re in Isa’s cellar.”

Ruby didn’t bother running, she blinked straight to the cellar door.  She wasn’t surprised in the slightest to find that it was warded from the inside.  She knocked on the cellar door.  In the distance behind her she could hear another fight breaking out.

“It’s mom.”  She said urgently.  “Let me in.”

The cellar door opened and she dove in.  The inside of the door had a large bloody ward on it that made her heart sink.  Tom & Kaylee were positioned to be between the other children and any attackers.  

Tom held an angel blade in one hand and a gris-gris bag in the other.  Blood dripped from the hand that held the magical bag and there was a long shallow slice across his lower abdomen that bled a little too much.  He was trying to use his body to shield Kaylee as much as possible, while still allowing her to reach around him to use The First Light.

Behind them, Alex sat on the floor silently holding Dylaniel & Sa'dah on his lap.  Alex's elegant black wings were out and folded awkwardly, doubled up and wrapping protectively around the younger children.  Dylaniel's brow was slightly furrowed, betraying his concern, and Sa'dah sobbed quietly against Alex's chest.

“Calvary’s arrived.  We’re gonna get you all out of here.”  Ruby reassured.  There was a knock on the door.

“Open up.”  Said Dean from the other side of the door.  Ruby opened the door and everyone rushed into the cellar- almost everyone.

“Where’s Belda?”  Ruby asked, but was only met with a grim look from Cas.  

“There’re gonna be more any minute.”  Dean said, trying to take control of the unpleasant situation.  “What the fuck are we doing?”

“I think…”  Ruby examined Tom’s ward on the cellar door.  She cut her own palms with her blade, then placed both hands on the ward.  “Yeah, I can keep the door fixed for a few minutes, but we need to get out of here.”

"How did they even find us?"  Asked Bobby as he held his bleeding arm.  Anael healed Bobby, while Cas healed Tom.

"They could have tagged one of us.  Used a locator spell on the tracker?"  Suggested Ruby.

"None of us were there."  Pointed out Cas.

"Maybe they tracked one of the kids or just waited until we were gone?"  Added Dean.

"More are coming."  Said Dylaniel's as his eyes flashed with blue light again.  Cas picked up his fatigued son and began looking him over with concern.

"They’re after the kids.  We need to find another place to hide them."  Cas’ distress was clear in his voice.

"Take them to one of the bases."  Suggested Bobby.

"All of networks were down and they were hitting us hard."  Dean explained with a sigh.

"Anonymity might be our best bet right now."  Offered Ruby.

"Do we have any bases they don't know about?"  Cas asked Dean.

They could hear people moving around above them.  Ruby quickly added two symbols to the ward painted on the cellar door and said a few words activating another defensive spell.  Someone banged on the cellar door causing a loud crackling noise followed by the smell of burning flesh.

“Somebody come up with a smart idea fast.”  Ruby muttered.

"We'll put up blood wards- it worked before.”  Dean suggested.

"That's not gonna cut it if we have a tracker on us and we’ll be in this same mess.”  Ruby shot down the idea.

"Can we put them somewhere that angels can't port to?"  Bobby asked.

"Not without taking away our mobility too."  Pointed out Cas.

"They could go to the Citadel."  Bobby didn’t want to even suggest it, but they were running low on time & options.

"We don't know what that would do to Dylan, they've got protections against angels down there-”  Complained Dean.  “and Tommy might have problems down there too."

"I can take it."  Objected Tom.

"Hell's being jumped as we speak.  I don't think we could even get through.  Every gate is being fought over- Heaven intentionally cut it off."  Ruby said through gritted teeth as she channeled her powers into the ward.  

There was another bang on the door, which made Ruby falter slightly.  Mir & Jieshi caught her and physically reinforced her.  Dean glanced at the kids then buried his face in his hands.

"Split up the kids.”  He hated even suggesting it.  “They each get two of us to protect them.  If one of them or us is being tracked then the whole group won't be exposed.  Call for reinforcements if you need it, but make sure your kid has at least one guard."

"We're stronger as a group."  Said Cas a little surprised by the suggestion.

"We're a group, right now.  If Heaven is throwing everything they have at us…”  Dean felt sick at the thought of turning it into a numbers game, but it was the surest way to find out if they were being tracked and any kid not being tracked would immediately be safe.

"Okay, split up in case of trackers, everyone do purification spells to try to knock of basic tracking spells, then throw up some wards until we can do some proper cleansings and find a safe place to relocate.  Is that what I'm hearing?"  Ruby asked as another blast shook the door and caused her to cringe in pain.

"Where are we taking them?"  Asked Cas.

"Anywhere Heaven won't look."  Suggested Bobby.

* * *

Sam patiently watched the Howling Gate when a vision began flickering in the back of his mind.  He let it come to the surface to see if it would give him any insight into the battle.  But it wasn't about Hell, or the war, or even really angels.  It was about his youngest daughter.

For some reason, Bobby was holding Sa'dah's hand while they walked down a city street.  A man was following them, guarding them, it was Mir.  The Knight was with them for some reason instead of Ruby.  They were making their way to a nearby motel.  

The last place they'd checked was something of a safe house.  It had been a home of Tara's friend, but the place had recently been burnt down.  When they saw that their hideout was destroyed, Bobby suggested that they just find a quick place to get off the street.

Someone was following them.  Mir stopped and looked back at the man, who froze.  There was a moment where Sam hoped that the man would just walk away, but that's not how his visions worked.  Something was about to happen.

The man splashed Mir with holy water attracting the attention of at least two dozen passersby.  Within moments Mir was hit with binding powder and had been swarmed by several people.  Bobby picked up Sa'dah, then started running.  There was yelling, but Sam couldn't make out the words.  Several people blocked Bobby's path.

Someone grabbed Sa'dah's arm and started pulling her away from Bobby.  She was kicking and crying.  Bobby drew a gun on the people who were trying to take his granddaughter, but there were too many people, who were too close.  He managed to shoot three attackers before he was tackled to the ground.   

Sa'dah jerked & flailed wildly as she was trying to free herself.  Her frantic movements broke them grip and she fell to the ground.  The impact startled her, causing her eyes to change black.  She tried to crawl away, but her ankles were grabbed and she was dragged back into the growing mob.

Sam broke through the closest gate, the Howling Gate.  The action was instantaneous, but in his panic & anger he burned to death twenty of the angels on his way out.  He appeared in the intersection of a street in Los Angeles.  Bobby, Mir, & Sa'dah were somewhere nearby. He reached out with his mind and could sense Mir about a block away, but he was hurt.  Sam blinked there.  

There was the mob of forty or fifty people.  He rushed into it, throwing people out of his way.  A few men made the mistake of trying to grab him, but just burnt them with The First Light.  After that most of the crowd fled, yet a smaller group of half a dozen men & women didn't run. He recognized the homemade red crosses on their clothes.  With a clench of his fist he crushed their throats, then flicked his wrist, throwing them to finish dying somewhere out of his way.

He couldn't think clearly enough to blink any closer.  When he saw Sa'dah, he ran to her.  He fell to his knees and held her.  Her throat had been cut with an angel blade and someone had started carving 'dem' into her forehead.  The white dress she'd been wearing was half soaked through with her blood.  Clutching her body, Sam rocked back & forth, silently crying.

Bobby's beaten & bloody corpse was ten feet away.  Mir's meatsuit was nearby surrounded by a dozen humans he'd killed before having his limbs cut off.  Sam wasn't able to process any of that.  His baby girl was dead.  He didn't fully take in his dead and injured friends.  He didn't take in the group of several dozen humans & Templars coming toward him.  He didn't even take in the two dozen angels teleporting in around him.

* * *

Ruby was sitting on a bed of a Wichita motel room where she & Anael had taken Alex.  They had just finished with the anti-angel warding and purification spells when the television switched over to breaking news.  Minutes earlier Los Angeles had detonated.  There was no mushroom cloud or blast wave, just intense burning white light.  The reports were still coming in and everyone was struggling to understand what had actually happened, but somehow she already knew.

Bobby & Sa'dah had been there...  The white light could only be Sam.  Something had gone horribly wrong, but she didn’t know what it all meant.  She hugged Alex while looking to Anael, who nodded in concerned understanding to her, then she immediately ported back to Hell.  Her journey was ominously unobstructed.  There were no angels at the gates.  They had all wisely fled.

A strange quiet filled the Citadel.  The hallways were dark and empty of their normal minions going about important business.  It was almost never lively in the Citadel, but there was at least a flurry of activity.  Instead there was a sense of foreboding.

She found Sam sitting on the hard stone floor of the throne room.  He was cradling Sa'dah's body in his arms.  Her light brown hair contrasted with the whiteness of her bloodless skin and her now crimson dress.  Two strips of white fabric had been torn from Sam’s jacket and used to wrap part of her forehead & neck.  Despite the careful bandaging, blood stained through the strips hinting at her injuries.  Sam’s torn jacket bore matching stains on his arms & chest.

Ruby staggered, then fell to her knees in front of him.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes.  For a moment she tried to fight back the tears, but she broke down.  Sobbing, she rested her head on Sam's shoulder.  

Ruby’s hand moved to touch Sa'dah's cheek, but she hesitated.  She didn't want to feel the cold skin of her daughter's body.  The discovery was too soon for rage to overtake her.  It was unreal, a bad dream she could barely process.  Had things been different Sam would’ve been trying to comfort her.  He might’ve held her back or cupped her cheek lightly, while saying reassuring words.  But he hadn’t even looked up at her.  He was in a state of shock, he was the one that needed care.  After taking a moment to try to collect herself a little, Ruby softly kissed his cheek.

"Baby, I..."  She couldn't find any words- there wasn’t anything that she could say that would make the situation better.  He knew the love she held and the pain that the loss was creating in her, because he was feeling the same way.  Their flawed, yet beautiful little world had been shattered.

"I'm done..."  His voice was weak with grief, but his words carried a weight that she felt intimately.  "I'm done with Earth.  They can have it."

"What?"  Ruby was shaken by Sam's words.  He'd never spoken like that before.  For years he had slowly been talking about Earth with more of a professional interest, but she hadn’t ever imagined that he’d have lost his personal connection to the plane.  It was their home- it had been their home, and now somehow in his mind it was expendable.  

Beyond what this turn said about Sam’s mindset, it also had terrifying implications.  The idea of withdrawing was the result of tragedy, but it could also be the cause of even more.  She knew that Sam was speaking from a place of grief, yet she couldn’t help wonder if he’d secretly humored the thought beforehand.  If he had thought about it for any length of time, then he’d know how disastrous it would be for Earth… and if he said it in spite of that knowledge, maybe he was beyond the point of caring.

"We've been throwing ourselves into that war…”  He swallowed hard, not entirely comfortable with what he was suggesting.  “It's not safe up there, but we can defend ourselves here.  We could pull everyone down and just leave it."  

He didn't look at her when he was talking, he kept staring at Sa'dah.  He hadn’t looked up since Ruby had arrived.  His hair hung around his face, inadvertently blocking out everything else.  The only thing in his view was Sa’dah and his own bloody clothes.  Ruby touched Sam's chin, actively turning his face up to hers.  His eyes were pink from crying and his skin was gravely pale.

"Sam, you need to promise me that you won't make any decisions like this."  His lips trembled and moved a bit, but he didn’t speak.  She pushed some of his hair behind his right ear and caressed his cheek the same way she wished he would hers.  “Please let me help you.”

* * *

Dean hadn't actually been to Hell in all the years that Sam had been in charge.  He'd heard that there were changes, like the plants that supposedly grew sparsely throughout the demon dominated sections.  But when he arrived it wasn't the ever so slightly nicer environment he was expecting.  The plants had turned an ashen grey and he feared that a strong breeze would make them dissolve to dust.  The trees had lost their leaves & flowers creating a skeletal appearance.  The vines grew menacing thorns that may have literally been razor sharp.

Just inside the dimly lit throne room was a large stone table, topped with a body wrapped in white linen, befitting a hunter's pyre.  Bobby's baseball cap laid over its heart.  Dean rested his hand on Bobby's chest and cried.  The elder hunter had been a better father to him than John ever could've.  He’d known that Bobby wouldn’t be around forever, but somehow he’d tricked himself into thinking that the old paranoid would at least escape a gruesome death.  Maybe he’d die in his sleep or surrounded by his surrogate grandchildren...  The thought ‘He did.’ was pure agony, but he tried to bury his feelings for a little longer.  When he'd collected himself, he walked deeper into the large hall.

In front of the throne was a smaller stone table with a child's body wrapped in white linen.  She had three red roses on her chest.  It was too much.  Dean’s fingers clutched the edge of the table in a desperate attempt to stop him from collapsing outright.  His knees felt too weak to keep him upright, so he tried to lower himself to a kneeling position.  At the end his strength gave out and his aging knees slammed onto the stone floor, but the physical pain barely even registered compared to everything else.

He was overcome at the death of his niece, yet at the same time his head swam with frightening what ifs.  What if his son had been the one found by the mob?  Would they have spared the half-angel?  The Templars would try to kill a nephilim just as much as a demon, but did the other humans in the mob even know the difference?  Did it even matter anymore whether someone was an angel or a demon- did it only matter that they’re an outsider?  Had he made the wrong decision about splitting up the kids?  If he hadn't suggested it, would Sa'dah & Bobby still be alive?  Would even more of the kids be dead?  

It was his job to make decisions that risked lives every day, but not the lives of his family- not of their children.  He didn't know if it had been the right choice and he probably never would.  It wasn’t even clear if Sam knew why Bobby & Sa’dah had been in Los Angeles in the first place.  If Ruby had told him, did she tell him whose idea it was?  Did anyone else blame him as much as he did?  Dean shook his head, then looked up, passed Sa’dah’s body, to his brother.

Sam sat on the throne, which had shed all its pedals.  He looked devastated.  Sam's face was grim, caught in some deep unpleasant thought.  Ruby had insisted on cleaning him up and getting him into some new clothes while having the bodies wrapped and Mir returned to his tomb to recover.  Sam wore his normal outfit with the long jacket, but it looked almost villainous as part of a solid matte black outfit.  Dean pushed the idea from his mind.

"Sammy, I’m sorry.  I can’t even…”  Dean was crying, but Sam had run out of tears long ago.  “I just can’t even begin-"

"Do the other kids know?"  Sam asked quietly.  He didn’t look at Dean, instead he stared at the floor- at nothing at all.

"No.  Ruby asked me to come.  She was worried about you... She said you were talking about pulling out of Earth."  Dean felt horrible talking about it while Sa'dah & Bobby's bodies were still fresh, but with one impulsive sentence Sam could undo a decade of work.  The family would have to deal with their deaths, but first they needed to bring the family back together.  

Ruby had returned topside to get Dean before returning to Alex, but other than that they hadn’t had much communication between the groups.  Tom, Kaylee, & Jieshi were at Rufus’ cabin, which had lost its cable connection years earlier, meaning that they were almost certainly out of the loop.  Alex was only ten years old, but he was a smart kid who’d quickly be putting the clues together.  Dylaniel had been asleep when Ruby had told Cas & him about everything.  They were scattered with varying amounts of information, waiting for the other shoe to potentially drop.  They needed to have a new sanctuary, where they could all learn about Bobby & Sa’dah, and grieve together.  But first they needed to make sure Sam wasn’t about to throw Earth to the wolves.

"I can't do it anymore."  Sam shook his head.  "I can't put my family, my people, their lives at risk for..."

"For what?"  Dean stood up.

"For them.  For Earth, for the humans."  Exasperation started creeping into Sam's voice.  "We're moving mountains, rewriting the rules, dying for them by the thousands, and they think we're scum.  It's like Hell's just the place where the humans throw their trash."

"Sam, you can't pull out of Earth.”  Listening to Sam’s words, Dean felt like he’d grabbed onto a single hair and glanced up to realize it was attached to a tiger.  He could see Sam being upset over Sa’dah’s death, but this went far beyond that into territory that he wasn’t equipped to handle.  All he could do was try to stay on message.  “If you do, it'll be a massacre.  Almost half our people are demons.  We need your guys."

"Like the humans are really so worth protecting- They're killing each other in droves.  We've been dragging them kicking & screaming back from the brink of extinction and what are they doing with their second chance?  The Earth is being poisoned-  They killed Sadie- she was good & innocent!"  As Sam began to yell, Dean got the distinct impression that the throne room was getting darker & colder.  The realization that Sam’s anger might really be changing their surroundings scared him, but he didn’t want Sam to see that fear lest it drive a deeper wedge between them.  "Heaven and the humans, it's like they don't even care what's right anymore.  She was five years old!  And the humans-"

"The Templars."  Dean interjected, while moving around the table to be closer to Sam.  He didn't want Sa'dah's body to literally be between them.  "I know there's a lot to hate up there- trust me Sammy, I know that so well, but you've gotta point that hate at the people who deserve it.  You know there are good humans- I'm a human.  Dylan's half human. Tommy is human.  Bobby... was human.  Some part of you is human.  I know overall we're fucked up, but I’m begging you... please don't give up on us."

Sam closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the Seat.  Tears rolled down his cheeks.  Dean cautiously approached his brother.  He wasn’t sure exactly what he was afraid of more, Sam hurting him in a fit of rage or Sam giving up.

“What if I can’t...”  Sam whispered, then opened his eyes and looked up at Dean.  “I just don't feel it…  I don't feel anything."

"Sammy, please...  Years ago I promised that if you let me be there for you I’d try to be the kind of person who wouldn’t give up on you."  Dean placed a hand on Sam’s arm.  “Let me be there for you- let your family be there for you.  Just please promise me that you won’t give up.”

* * *

3/10/2025

Cas glanced into Dylaniel’s bedroom.  The boy was sitting on the floor, back against the side of his bed.  His arms wrapped around his legs, holding them to his chest.  A few toys laid on the floor in front of him.

Cas sat down on the little bed, next to where Dylaniel was huddled.  He considered patting Dylaniel’s head or touching his shoulder to provide some comfort, but he didn’t want to presume that Dylaniel was accepting of physical contact.  Instead he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Are you upset about Sadie?”  Cas asked, knowing that on some level his son was undoubtedly upset about Sa'dah’s death.  It had only been two weeks since she had died and their family had relocated to the bunker.  Cas often wondered if the lack of physical reminders of his cousin increased or decreased the pain Dylaniel experienced.

“Yes.”

“Can you talk to me about your feelings?”

“Yes.”

Cas waited for almost a minute, but Dylaniel didn’t elaborate.  The boy was in one of his extremely literal moods.  Cas didn’t find those episodes nearly as alarming as Dean.  It was understandable that in times of stress one wouldn’t want to read too much into statements.  Though humans often had to interpret many non-telepathic forms of nonverbal communication.  

Their son’s difficulty with the full range of human communication could be a significant handicap if he didn’t develop angelic forms of communication to compensate.  Every few weeks Cas had tried to telepathically connect with Dylaniel as he would an angel, but so far the attempts were unsuccessful.  He hadn’t told Dylaniel that he was trying it, the six year old was already under enough pressure.

“Were you playing with your toys?”. Cas asked, hoping to find a topic that Dylaniel actually wanted to discuss.

“I was… no.”

“Is something wrong with your toys?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t work.”

Cas looked at the toys.  He reached down and picked up a plastic triceratops out of the group.  None of the toys appeared to have complex moving parts or required batteries.  No pieces were missing or poorly aligned.

“Your toys seem to be functional.

“I don’t… know how…”  Dylaniel’s eyes turned down in embarrassment, but Cas couldn’t understand what his son was trying to express.

“What do you mean?”

“Sadie told the stories.”

“I remember that she used to tell stories often.”  Cas acknowledged.  He would regularly see Sa’dah excitedly acting out the most fantastic stories for Dylaniel’s amusement.  She seemed to relish the challenge of making him smile.

“I don’t know any.”

“Well, when she was telling you the stories she wasn’t recalling anything from memory.  She was making the stories up, pretending.”

“How do I pretend?”  Dylaniel’s question confused Cas.

“Pretending… It’s the word for when you play or act in a certain way and it’s not based in reality.  I expect it’s a lot like dreaming, but you have more volition because you are awake.”

Dylaniel’s brow furrowed so much that Cas worried that he was about to start crying.  The nephilim looked around the room uneasily, then held himself tighter.

“How do I dream?”

Cas stared at Dylaniel in surprise.  He knew that nephilim slept, but only then did it occur to him that in six years Dean & he had never once had to comfort Dylaniel after a nightmare.  Dylaniel wasn’t asking for a technical explanation, he was asking for instructions.

“When you sleep, do you see images or experience any other sensory input?”

“No.”  Dylaniel looked up at his xe.  “Am I supposed to?”

“I don’t know.”  Cas climbed down onto the floor, then extended his arms to Dylaniel.  “Can I have a hug?”

Dylaniel nodded, then scooted over to his xe.  Cas wrapped his arms around him.  The angel carefully wrapped his incorporeal wings around them both, though he wasn’t sure whether Dylaniel was even aware of them.

“Am I broken?”

“No, you’re a miracle.  We’re just still learning how all the pieces fit together.”  Cas kissed Dylaniel’s forehead, then tucked a few stray blonde hairs behind his ear.  For a moment, Cas could see a resemblance to Dean in their son’s anxious darting eyes & slight nostril flare.  It wasn’t as heartwarming a resemblance as their common smile, but it made Cas beam lovingly just the same.  “You’re so much like your dad.”

“Does dad dream?”  Dylaniel asked, slightly comforted by the comparison and his xe’s calm & gentle tone.

“Yes,”  Cas delicately turned Dylaniel’s face up to his.  “but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.  Your dad wouldn’t want you to have his dreams.”

“Why not?”  

“They scare him.  They remind him of the bad things that happened to him in the past.  More than anything else, he wants you to have a happy future.”

That night when Dean tucked Dylaniel into bed he had a surprise.  He pulled a comic book from his back pocket.  Dean laid down on the bed next to his son and they read through the issue together.

“What happens next?”  Dylaniel asked when they reached the cliffhanger at the end of the issue.

“We can find that out together tomorrow night.  Does that sound good?”  Dean grinned slyly.

“Yes.”

“Awesome.”  Dean stood up, tucked the blanket around Dylaniel’s shoulders, then kissed him on the forehead.  As he went to turn off the light he almost said ‘sweet dreams’, but caught himself.  “Sleep well.”

* * *

3/20/2025

Dean woke up to an empty bed.  He pulled on some pajama pants and a t-shirt, then ventured into the hallway.  The bunker had an air of security that everyone needed after the attack on the camp, which had resulted in the deaths of Bobby, & Sa’dah.  It had taken almost two days for the solution to be found and the family reunited.  Dean had been upset when Sam explained the price of the location of one of the most secure places on Earth.  But he had to admit that in a Crossroads bargain it was hard to bid higher than the King of Hell’s soul.  It was unfortunate, though the deal was dwarfed by recent events and potential outcomes.

He found Cas in their son's bedroom.  After moving into the bunker, nearly every night Cas had gone to check on Dylaniel and each time he would end up watching over him until morning.  Cas’ concern was both heartbreaking & endearing.  Dean walked up behind Cas and wrapped his arms around the angel.  He rested his chin on Cas' shoulder, then nuzzled his cheek.

He thought about losing his mom when he was four and how Tom lost his father when he was six.  Dylaniel was six and facing the death of his surrogate sister & grandfather.  Dean's childhood and most of his adulthood had been spent under an oppressive silence about his mother's death.  It was still painful to think of her, probably because he almost never spoke about her.  He was the only human alive who had ever known her- that realization was crushing.

Unlike him, Tom didn't seem to have a problem talking about Gabin.  He had even developed a biweekly tribute of making fruit pancakes while singing obnoxiously loud.  From a young age, Sam & Ruby had encouraged him to be open about the loss and celebrate the life.  It seemed like a more healthy approach to accepting the death of a loved one.

That sentiment was a little difficult to hold onto at the moment, the pain was still too fresh.  Amazingly, Sam had somehow managed to shoulder his massive emotional load.  The AFE would stay intact and Earth would live to burn out another day.  With that settled, Sam & Ruby focused on their remaining children almost exclusively.  They tried to be open about the losses, but some days were just too painful- though, it seemed like those days were becoming less frequent.

Dean & Cas had been there for all kids, but they tried to pay special attention to their son.  Dylaniel had always been hard to read and seeing his reaction to death for the first time had intimidated Dean to no end.  Unsurprisingly, Dylaniel became very quiet- he was quiet in general.  The disturbing part was that he had stayed quiet.  Dean’s lips pursed at the thought while Dylaniel rustled, then looked up at them.

"Is something wrong?"  His voice was deceivingly calm, but his brow furrowed anxiously.

"No little man, we're just being overbearing parents."  Dean joked in an attempt to not worry Dylaniel.  He went over and sat down on the edge of the little bed.  "Is it okay if we talk for a bit?"

"Yes."  Dylaniel nodded, then repositioned himself to sit beside his dad.  The boy technically still spoke, but he'd reverted back to his younger speech pattern of only saying four words at the most per sentence.  

Dean patted Dylaniel's back and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.  It was comforting to see that he wasn't falling back into old habits of avoiding physical contact, though he'd always been more tolerant of interacting with his parents.  Dean made a mental note to ask Ruby to see if Dylaniel was still willing to give her a hug.  In the meantime, maybe some of the damage could be talked away.

"Your xe & I know that it's been hard since..."  He hesitated to say their names, then felt guilty.  "Sadie & Bobby died.  It's okay to be sad or scared or angry.  It's okay have questions or be confused.  You can talk about it."

Dylaniel stared at his knees for almost an entire minute before accepting Dean’s invitation.

"What's Heaven like?  That's where they are, right?"

Cas & Dean exchanged an unsure glance.  They had assumed that someday Dylaniel would ask about Heaven.  He had undoubtedly overheard them discussing Heaven's military activities over the years, but now he'd realized there was more to the story.  Heaven was a place, which served some function beyond sending bad people to hurt good people.  Cas sat down on the bed on Dylaniel's free side.

"I used to live in Heaven.”  Cas explained.  “That's where all angels come from, even ones who are fallen. I haven't been there in a very long time, but it was very beautiful & peaceful."

"Do you miss it?"  Dylaniel asked.  Cas smiled sadly, then his eyes flicked to Dean before returning to their son.

"I miss parts of it, but Earth is my new home.  I'd like to be able to return someday- for a visit, but I'm happy here."

"You don't know what it's like in Heaven now."  It was almost a question.

"I imagine that many of the angels in Heaven are distressed by the war.  Their numbers are much smaller than they used to be, so that is likely causing them difficulties.”  Cas decided to pull back on the complicated answer and focus on the part Dylaniel was really concerned about.  “But the human souls that are there shouldn't be affected- they should be happy."

There was growing concern over the fate of Heaven.  As the angels' death toll increased the discussion had shifted away from what is the proper role of angels on Earth to whether a sufficient number of angels would even survive the war to maintain Heaven.  Several choirs had fallen in their entirety and of those, two choirs had populations of less than twenty.  If the cherubs, the virtues, or any other choir truly did die out, how could Heaven ever recover?  And if the keepers of Heaven disappeared, what would happen to the countless human souls that inhabited it?  

After Dylaniel was introduced to the world, the idea began floating through the AFE that maybe nephilim could take up their xes' charges to compensate for the losses.  The suggestion had been met with polar opposite responses.  Within the AFE, human-angel relationships suddenly took on a new importance and they were passively encouraged to have children.  But Heaven had publicly condemned the idea that nephilim would ever be allowed in Heaven, let alone given a place in its hierarchy.  The issue was important and would eventually come to a head, though it wasn’t the issue at hand.

"Sadie isn't human.”  Dylaniel astutely observed to Dean’s disappointment.  He could already see where the line of thinking was headed.  “Is she happy there?"

The fact was that no one knew exactly what had happened to Bobby or Sadie.  They feared that Bobby was imprisoned, being worked over for information.  In general, Heaven wasn't too rough on the AFE soldiers who had somehow gotten past the pearly gates, but a member of the inner circle like Bobby was something else.  All of the recruits since his death hadn't seen him, which meant he probably was under lock & key.

But Sadie had only been five years old.  She didn't know anything of value and was the sweetest kid anyone had met.  She was more commonly described as angelic than demonic... though the angel she resembled most was Lucifer.  They didn't want to believe that Heaven would punish a child just because of their parentage, but the policy against nephilim was definitely ominous.

"We don't know.  We're pretty certain she's there, but we haven't been able to find out what she's doing."  Cas tried to be honest, but left the wording ambiguously more hopeful that it should've been.

"How large is Heaven?  Where the human souls are."  Dylaniel tilted his head.  Dean suspected he was trying to imagine Bobby & Sa’dah on some clouds or whatever cliche he’d heard of.  It felt a little wrong to let him feel hopeful about the situation, yet it seemed cruel to take that vision away from him.  

"It's so large that it can't be described in human terms.  Each soul has their own domain, but they all overlap.  Sometimes souls can travel to each other's domain, but normally they're separate."  Cas smiled at a thought.  "They're like honeycombs in a beehive, but in more than three dimensions."

"And all the good humans go there when they die?"  Dean cringed at the false characterization.  He’d gone to Hell… though it was easier to tackle the subject as a whole rather than launch into explaining to Dylaniel about how his parents had first met.

"Maybe not all, but some of them."  Cas explained, apparently on the same page.

"My parents, your grandparents are there."  Dean added in the the hopes of creating some level of certainty to the whole human souls aspect of conversation.

Dean had always assumed that his mom had made it in and after his escape from Hell it seemed reasonable to think that his dad would be there too.  His suspicions had been confirmed by Cas, who had looked them up as part of his research before saving Dean from Hell.  

Since Dylaniel’s birth, Dean had been weighing the risks of trying to contact his mom.  A few years earlier, Cas had suggested that maybe during one of the holy ceasefires Dean could go with him to visit Heaven in the hopes of seeing her.  In theory no angel could take an intentionally harmful act during a holy time, but neither of them were 100% confident in the moral integrity of Heaven.  Despite knowing it was dangerous, he was tempted to go.  He wanted to hug her, tell her that he'd found someone, & that they had a son...  He wanted to tell his dad the same information, but the tone would be completely different and the hug would be replaced with a punch in the face.

“And they’re protected by angels?”  Dylaniel’s brow furrowed again.

“They’re guarded by angels.”  Cas corrected, though it wasn’t clear if the boy understood the subtle distinction.

“But the angels were…  They were trying to…”  Dylaniel shook his head as he reevaluated what he was trying to ask.  "Were they trying to kill us or take us?"

"We’re not entirely sure."  Dean answered solemnly.  

"They tried to kill Tommy."  Dylaniel clarified.  In the cellar, Dean & Cas had both seen the serious slice across Tom’s torso.  Dylaniel had undoubtedly witnessed a heated fight that was clearly not about taking Tom alive.

"Tommy is a human, like me."  It felt a little weird to have to occasionally make that distinction.  "Heaven isn't really interested in most humans one way or the other."

"But Heaven wants to hurt you."  Dean sighed while tussling Dylaniel’s hair, unconsciously hoping to instill some youthful innocence back into the boy.

"Heaven wants to take me, but I’m fighting them so that they don’t."  He was trying to think of a better way to explain the situation when Dylaniel interrupted him.

"Why does Heaven want to take you?"

"Your dad's a vessel.”  Cas offered when Dean hesitated.  Dylaniel was too young for this.  They’d always waited until the kids were ten to have the vessel talk, but this whole conversation was an avalanche of hard truths.  “He's vessel to a very important angel in Heaven, Michael."

"He's not in me or anything."  Dean assured his son when he saw Dylaniel eyed him with concern.  "I have to agree to be possessed, and I'm not going to do that.  I promise."

"They want to take you."  Dylaniel wasn't asking a question, he was processing the information.  The boy picked up on some facts as if from the ether, so Dean never doubted his ability to come to the right answer with seemingly little supporting data.  He nodded as some piece clicked into place.  "They tried to take me because I’m a vessel too."

Dean hugged Dylaniel.  It was taking all his willpower not to tear up.  He didn’t want to panic Dylaniel anymore than he already was.  Dylaniel didn’t understand what it meant for his life going forward, but soon he’d start finding out.  The fear, the responsibility, the expectations…  He wanted to spare Dylaniel all of it.

"It's okay, they aren't gonna get you."  Dean whispered as he kissed the top of Dylaniel’s head, then relaxed the hug slightly.  The boy stared intently at his knees again before speaking.

"I'm… I’m scared of Heaven and the Templars."  Dylaniel didn't look at either of his parents while confessing.

"That's fine.”  Dean patted his son's back.  “They scare me too."  

"I don't want to be scared of them."  Dylaniel nodded at some thought, then looked up at his dad with conviction.  "I want them to be scared of me."

 


	18. 2026

Scenes to come


	19. 2027

Scenes to come


	20. 2028

03/02/2028

“I used to live a few towns over.”  Commented Matt as he looked out the car window.  Dean’s assistant had volunteered to go on the goodwill mission as an excuse to check out his old corner of the world.  They were driving along Highway 65 and had started passing through the remnants of Branson, Missouri.  It had been a fairly small town before the war had gotten serious.  Afterward it dwindled to nothing as its people sought protection in larger cities.  Most of the buildings were crumbling from a decade of neglect compounded by the occasional tornado.

“Is anyone still there?”  Asked Dean.

“My cousin was still on her farm as of ‘24, but I haven’t heard from her since.”

The driver of their SUV tapped on an attachment to the dashboard that consisted of six thin metal gauges resting against two crystals.  She checked her sideview mirrors to see the status of the last car in their convoy, then picked up her walkie-talkie.

“Am I the only one getting interference on the aura nav?”

“Ours is sputterin’ too.  Ben says it’s probably just some drift from the south.”  Offered one of the other drivers.

They were traveling to the human city-state of Little Rock, which was just inside of the massive chunk of the southeastern United States that had been living under an anti-magic aura for almost 15 years.  Occasionally, especially during hurricane season, the winds would be so strong that a little bit of the effects would spread further north.  With the unpredictability of magic in the area, they decided to just drive down from their Springfield base.  

“And that’s why we don’t fly in this kind of weather.”  Muttered Simiel, who was seated next to Dean.  Dean shrugged at the comment, then offered the angel his bag of pretzels.  Simiel grabbed two, popped them in his mouth, then leaned forward and addressed the driver.  “I’m still feeling fine.  If the interference gets too strong, I’ll let you know.”

“Does it feel weird?”  Matt asked Simiel.  “When you don’t have your powers.”

“Exhausting… which means a lot since we don’t fatigue normally.”

Dean didn't comment, but he anxiously played with his wedding band.  Cas & he both had bad memories of the blacked out stretch of land.  He'd asked Cas to stay home for this mission.  The excuse had been that he wanted one of them available for Dylaniel if necessary, but the truth was that he didn't want Cas to feel that helplessness.  He couldn't imagine the physical sensation of having your powers nullified, but if Cas experienced it again he'd probably be risking some serious post traumatic stress.  Dean took a few deep breaths while wiggling his toes when his thoughts were interrupted by the walkie-talkie.

“It looks like the bridge is down.  Any bright ideas?”  Asked the lead driver.

“There are two other bridges just east of here if we cut through town.”  Suggested Matt.

It took a little backtracking, but they managed to find a path across the creek.  They ended up being forced through what used to be a quaint downtown shopping district.  Dean checked his watch, curious if they had enough time to scavenge a bit before continuing on their journey.  It was still an hour until dawn and the prospect of digging through rubble in the near-dark wasn't very appealing.

“I think I just saw a kid on the right side."  Said one of the drivers over the walkie-talkie.  Dean looked, but only saw shadowy ruins.

"You sure?"  Asked Dean's driver.

"I saw her too."  Confirmed the last driver.  "She looked like a scrounger."

Their cars had slowed as everyone internally debated whether to check on the girl.  A razed town wasn't any place for a kid.  If she was with family that was something, but it wasn't uncommon for orphaned kids to be anchored to their old home, unsure of how to find what counted for civilization these days.  If she was alone, they could give her a ride to Little Rock and return her to her people.

"Let's check fast."  Dean conceded after grabbing the walkie-talkie.  "Have your weapons, but try not to spook her or frighten any parents that might be lurking.  Let's just do our due diligence and be back on the road in ten."

The four SUVs pulled to the side of the road, then the nine passengers got out.  They fanned out a little bit and began looking through the fallen buildings where the girl had been spotted moments earlier.  Dean and two others called out to the girl in hopes of both getting her to come out and not catching some trigger happy drifter off guard.

A flare shot up into the pre-dawn sky and exploded in a lavender flash.  The sight made Dean’s stomach drop.  The lavender tint of the light was almost certainly caused by balsam powder being added to the explosive.  Traditionally, the powder was used to prevent demons from smoking out, but in the last few years the technology had advanced.  Mixed with a little angel blood and burnt, it not only halted demonic flight, but angelic as well for several hours in the whole area... And he sure as hell didn't order that flare.

"Ambush!"  Dean yelled as he dove for cover between an industrial water heater and a three foot tall section of what used to be a brick wall.  Semiautomatic gunfire broke out on at least three sides of his party.  Their attackers would try to weed out the humans & non-human natives with ranged weapons, but then the attackers would be forced to come down into melee range to kill the angels & demons.  

Dean looked up at the sky and prayed to Cas.  He barely started before there was a flash of intense light, then nothing.

* * *

Dean couldn't see anything.  He wasn't sure if it was because there was what felt like a cloth bag over his head or the fact that he seemed to be in the trunk of a car.  His wrists & ankles were zip-tied behind him.  He tried praying some more, but after several minutes that weren't interrupted by Cas tearing the engine out of the car, he gathered the prayers were being blocked somehow.

After a long stretch of time, the car came to a stop.  The trunk was popped and two sets of arms pulled him out.  They didn't bother being careful with him, his elbow and head both collided with parts of the car on the way out.  He made a token effort to resist them, but with his wrists & ankles bound he knew there wasn't much hope of running for it.

He counted six steps up to what felt like a deep wooden deck.  They roughly dragged him over the threshold of a building- probably breaking his tailbone in the process.  After a few minutes of laying on the linoleum floor, he was hoisted into a chair.  Duct tape was used to secure him before the black bag was finally removed.

There were eight people standing around the room watching him.  The telltale red crosses of the Templars marked their clothes & body armor.  To Dean’s surprise three of the Templars had minor injuries from the ambush, which they were patching themselves.  It was unheard of to see Templars with injuries outside of combat, that was one of the perks of being servants of Heaven, they had incredible healthcare.  The leader even had a cut on his arm, probably a slice from an angel blade based on the angle and width, that was being wrapped.  After receiving his bandage, he stepped forward and got down to business.

"You're Dean Winchester."  Dean appreciated that the leader didn’t start by hurting him.  There was a directness that when combined with the leader’s greying hair made Dean hope that he was in the hands of an experienced professional- someone that was at least predictable.  Of course, professionalism was not necessarily a two way road when you’re being held by the people who undoubtedly just killed your friends.

"And you're an asshole."  There wasn't any point to denying who he was, all that would get him was being killed immediately, which was its own gamble.  

After finding out that Heaven wanted to turn him into a massively destructive meat puppet, they'd agreed it was probably best if he went to Hell after dying.  Sam had not only voided the ban on Dean's soul, but the brothers made a deal in an attempt to game the system.  The Crossroads was able to reinforce the defenses of the AFE's bases in exchange for Dean selling his soul.  The contract only became due upon his death, so there was no countdown to hellhounds this time around.  

The problem was that when Crowley was evaluating Dean's soul for purchase, he noticed that Heaven had managed to get some hooks in it already.  His resurrection had cost Heaven five angels at a time when that loss was unheard of, so Heaven had tried to prevent having to go through that all over again.  While repairing his soul, an absolution clause had been written into it, granting him unhindered access to Heaven upon death.

Figuring there was no harm in trying, Dean, Sam, & Crowley decided to proceed with writing the Crossroads contract onto the same soul.  As a result, Dean had no idea what would happen if he were to die.  He could go up, down, or maybe be torn into nothingness.  Ideally, he wouldn't find out for a long time.

He didn't want to die, but he wasn't feeling like playing nice either.  These were Templars, if he could kill everyone of them he'd do it in a heartbeat.  And they wanted him dead too- but not as badly, for these little sycophants it wasn't nearly as personal.  

"When your masters get here are they gonna just give you the treat or do you have to let it balance on your nose firs-"  Dean prodded, but was interrupted when one of the Templars struck his chest with a cat o’ nine tails.  He tried not to cry out in pain, but wasn't completely successful.  Blood trickled from the broken skin.  "You tore the wrapper."  

He knew that Michael would just repair any damage they inflicted, but hopefully they wouldn't feel so confidently going forward.  The leader threw the subordinate with the whip a meaningful glance.

"Where are you heavy munitions caches for the eastern states?"  Asked the leader.

"Fuck you."  Another underling punched him in the stomach twice before being called off.

"Where are they?"

Being interrogated didn't make sense.  Once Michael was in him, they'd have access to everything he knew.  Their highest priority should've been getting him to say yes.  Anyway, no matter how much it annoyed him to be around Templars, they weren't the optimum choice for interrogators.

"Someone's playing with their masters' toy."  His words made the leader scowl.  He'd struck the nerve.  Heaven hadn't yet been informed of his capture, the Templars were shaking down the AFE commander before they tackled the separate task of handing off the vessel.  Things weren't completely hopeless after all.  

With a little luck, Cas had heard his initial prayer or someone had noticed that his party hadn’t checked in, and the ambush was being investigated.  An obvious assumption when everyone finds out that he's missing would be that he'd been taken to Heaven.  There might still be some recruits with ears on angel radio or one of their moles in Heaven could clue Cas in that he wasn't up there.  

From that point it would take at most a day or two for the news that he was missing to hit pirate radio and maybe another day for Heaven to catch wind.  Then either the Templars would have to turn him over to Heaven or else the shit would really hit the fan.  The AFE & Heaven would probably throw everything they have into finding him.  One side had fumbled the ball and the dog pile would ensue.

On top of the AFE & Heavenly forces, Sam would almost definitely... overreact wasn't the right word- this was a pivotal moment that required however much force it would take.  But if Sam found out there were Templars involved there's no telling what he'd do.  Total war might be back on the table and if the scorched earth happened to actually be Earth, then so be it.

So that gave Cas maybe a day or two to find him through some sort of miracle.  It also meant that he had to try to stay alive for a day or two, which sounded equally daunting.

* * *

Cas was getting ready to leave to visit Hael.  He finished checking on Dylaniel, who was reading in his bedroom.  Alex & Kaylee agreed to stay at the bunker while he was gone, though Dylaniel wasn't likely to get into trouble.  Before taking off he wanted to chat with Ruby to double check her availability for later in the day.  He started walking towards the library, but was stopped in his tracks by a prayer.

"Ambush at-"  It was Dean.  The emotions carried in the prayer were reined in panic & fear.  For a moment he could barely think of what to do.  He teleported into the bunker library, where Ruby & Kaylee were talking.  They looked up at the uncustomarily hasty entrance.

"There's been an attack, I don't know how large."  Cas said, then broke eye contact.

"Where are you going?"  Ruby hastily asked before he could teleport away.

"Dean."

Cas tried to teleport as close as he could to where Dean had prayed from, but there was some sort of anti-flight aura in the area.  After trying to teleport in at different angles, he realized that there were several dozen square miles of territory to be covered on foot.  He prayed to his angelic subordinates for help with the search.  After about forty minutes, they'd found the location of the ambush.  

It was a massacre.  More than one body had been broken into pieces by an explosion.  All of the mortal corpses had been finished off with two shots to the head for good measure.  Cas recognize Dean's assistant- he'd been shot in the femoral artery and no doubt bled out in seconds.  Cas worked in silence as he checked the bodies and under the newly formed rubble trying to find Dean.

The AFE's four SUVs were still smoldering.  Three of them had charred corpses inside them.  Their faces were too disfigured to identify, so Cas tried to sense whether one of them might be Dean, but the interference from the drift was causing him to doubt himself.  He ended up checking the bodies for telltale signs like his wedding ring.  

One of Cas' lieutenants found him standing on a mound of brick & concrete assessing the bleak scene.  Cas unconsciously tried to wipe the ash from his hands in an unnervingly human gesture.  She reported that they had found several fresh sets of tire tracks leading away from the fight.  Though the tracks were only visible until they reached the highway.

He called in an order to have checkpoints set up, but with a forty minute head start the radius of travel included several roads within the anti-magic field or in territory controlled by other factions- and that was assuming that the attackers stayed on the roads.  But it was a start.

* * *

Ruby had contacted the AFE to relay Cas' warning, but there hadn't been any reports of an attack.  Without much more to go on, she contacted both Sam & Tom asking them to come home right away.  She was catching them up on what had happened when Cas appeared next to them.  He looked distraught.  After quickly looking around to make sure that Dylaniel wasn't in earshot, he sat down at one of the tables and covered his face.

"Dean is missing."  He finally explained.

"What happened?"  Asked Sam.  Ruby & Tom both sat down on either side of Cas while Kaylee & Sam remained standing.

"A party he was leading was ambushed in Branson.  He prayed to me, but it was cut off.  I went...  I couldn't find a body."  Ruby reached over and held Cas' hand.  "It looks like he was taken."

"We'll find him."  Reassured Ruby.  "We'll get everybody looking for him- there are leads, we just need to get more people on this."

"I'll talk to the Counsel, you two should alert the AFE-"  Sam began.

"Guys,"  Kaylee interrupted.  "What about Dyl?  What do we tell him?"

"Until we know..."  Cas' lips thinned.  "Don't tell him."

* * *

Ruby rarely attended high level meetings of the AFE commanders.  She preferred to stick with the R&D team, only to be dragged into the discussion of the big picture to the extent it helped her work.  That day she was in it deep.  She was Cas' primary advocate and source of emotional support in the debate of how to proceed with finding Dean. 

Rather than making Cas retell every again, she brought the group up to speed.  Dean's convoy was attacked.  He was missing.  There was a search underway, but it was just the limited resources Cas could assemble on short notice.  They needed to act, and fast.

"It's almost been two hours since the attack.  If they slipped past the initial search radius then we're looking at hundreds of square miles, ignoring the possibility of him being on a plane.  And let's not forget about if angels took him."  Pointed out Finch.

"Do we have any ears of angel radio?"  Asked Tamara.

"Two recruits.  I had them tune in as soon as I heard we were having an emergency meeting.  They know to alert me of anything out of the ordinary."  Assured Hael.

"If Heaven has him were completely fucked already, so let's focus on something we can get our hands on.  Can we get guards stationed at every operational airport in a 200 mile radius?  There can't be that many with solid tarmacs."  Added Bishop, a former master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force.  An assistant nodded, then stepped out for a moment to relay the message.

"We can get a few hundred angels out doing fly overs with their eyes peeled-"  Offered Tamara.

"We've already started trying with the angels, but that might not be enough... He was less than fifty miles from the dead zone."  Ruby referred to the anti-magic territory.  "Our angels are reporting significant drift of the effect north of the border.  If they dragged him in there it'll be like trying to find a shadow while blindfolded."

"We'll send predator class non-humans."  Suggested Anael.  "Kitsune & vampires might be able to catch his scent."

"Someone has to say it: send some ghouls too.  We can't limit ourselves to only looking for a live body."  Added Finch.

"It's still hundreds of miles in diameter.  We only have a hundred or so predators & ghouls-"  Complained Molok, a demon from the Cruciare caste.

"It might not be perfect, but it's better than nothing.  Finding Dean is our highest priority and if it means that we send our fucking bookkeepers out on foot looking we do it."  Rebutted Ruby.

"We need to find him, but we also need to control this situation."  Interjected Bishop.  "If Heaven doesn't know he's missing and we tip them off then we'll turn the entire search area into a battlefield."

"His disappearance is need to know.  Call in whatever resources, but do it quietly."  Said Anael in agreement

"Little Rock is going to wonder why he didn't show up."  Commented Tamara, drawing everyone’s attention.  They’d all been focused on Dean & Heaven that they forgot about the other faction in play.

"Maybe they won't be as surprised as you think."  Muttered Finch.

"You think they set us up?"  Asked Molok.

"There was an ambush on route to them.  They knew he was going to be attended."

"And what do you suggest we do about it."  Said Anael.  "They have 9 million in a fortified city where our angels, demons, & witches are practically useless."

"I'm not buying this whole untouchable status.  We can hit them if we need to."  Commented Finch.

"What if we're wrong?  Are you ready to attack a human city on a gamble?"  Countered Ruby.

"After Los Angeles, we can't risk fighting a human territory.  We'll push the rest of them to Heaven's side and then we'll have a billion more Templars to deal with."  Argued Bishop.

"So what, we let them walk all over us?"  Finch raised his voice in frustration.

"We don't have any evidence of their involvement.  They've been a neutral human state for years.  We should ask for their help, not plan our attack."  Suggested Shola.

"You're assuming that Little Rock wants to stay neutral.  If they really are in on the ambush, then not only will they not help, they might try to throw us off."  Molok pointed out.

"You're being paranoid-"  Interjected Tamara.

"One of our leaders was ambushed and taken.  I think a little paranoia is warranted."  Said Finch.

"What do you want us to do, interrogate the governor of Little Rock?"  Asked Anael in exasperation.

"We could use a truth spell, but it'd have to be in person."  Commented Molok.

"The humans aren't going to let us near their leaders with a truth spell- or any spell."  Said Hael.

"They're in a dead zone anyway.  We'd have to get them to leave their territory."

"This is insanity- Fuck, worse than that, it's impractical and we're running out of time.”  Ruby slammed her hands down on the table to head off any interruptions.  “Down the line vote on whether to be honest with Little Rock.  Whatever we decide, we decide now!"

* * *

The phone call to the governor of Little Rock was placed on speakerphone so that everyone could hear, though only four people were authorized to speak.  Anael, Tamara, Ruby, & Shola were in charge of handling the request for assistance in the search.  Cas was asked not to speak during the call for fear that, if the conversation turned sour, he would say something regrettable.  He leaned against the wall on the far side of the room from the phone and tried to distract himself by monitoring pirate radio.  

The governor hadn’t been surprised by the call, but he hadn’t expected such unpleasant news.  As soon as he picked up the line he’s asked why the party hadn’t arrived yet.  Hael shot Finch a glance as if to highlight Little Rock’s innocence, but Finch just mouthed ‘lying’ back.  Ruby stared daggers at both of them to be silent while Anael briefed the governor on the situation.  

"Fifteen of our people died trying to get your people aid-"  Tamara stated, emphasizing the point, until she was cut off by the governor.

"Well that's unfortu-  was the Winchester killed?"  Ruby cringed at the nonchalant choice of words, though he sounded legitimately concerned.  They all had good reason to be… some more than others.  She glanced at Cas, who was pointedly looking out a window.  

"He's missing."  Said Ruby.  There was silence from the other end.  "Listen, it was an ambush, on a mission that our side kept confidential."

"Are you suggesting that-"  The governor started objecting, but Shola cut him off.

"Improbable bad luck happens, but not twice in a row- not with this."  The Crossroads demon's tone was professional & menacing.  "We're expecting your people’s cooperation with the search and if we hit another incredible misfortune, then we will have a serious problem."

"You want us to suffer the repercussions if we hit bad luck?  We didn't do anything!"

"Look at this from our perspective-  This is being generous.  There are AFE commanders who don't want to give you that and you don’t want me to get me started on the king.  After the princess died in that horrible attack on Los Angeles, he's been fixated on his family's safety.  If he had some reason to think your people were involved in his brother's disappearance..."  Shola let everyone image the worst.  "So, we would take your people's assistance as a gesture of goodwill in this... delicate time."

"We're at your service."

* * *

The Templars had no idea what they had gotten themselves into when they decided to torture Dean.  He'd been worked over by the Archdemon Alastair for decades.  In his mind there was no question that he wouldn't break, the only question was whether he could strike the necessary balance in his performance to not get killed.  If the Templars suspected that they had no hope of breaking him they would probably just hand him over to Heaven sooner.  But if the Templars thought that they could beat intel out of him like a piñata, then he risked them accidentally overworking him to death.  

He tried to endure the beatings while pretending to struggle with a little snarkiness thrown in for good measure.  Unfortunately, it was hard to play the game when they incidentally did manage to push one of his buttons.  One Templar with a particularly strong right hook had simply given up on interrogating him and had switched gears to merely taking out some aggression.

"Do you know what they call you?"  He asked while cleaning his hands.  Dean spat a little blood on the floor before answering.

"Last time I checked it was the Michaelsword.  What do they call you, assuming that they even know-"  The Templar wheeled around, hit Dean in the face, then he squeezed Dean's jaw.

The truth was that he knew every nasty name that all the sides called him.  There were dozens of slurs or curses thrown at him each week.  That was just part of leading a largely misunderstood faction in a nuanced political climate.  Not to mention his prominence in various cultural movements- with this crowd it was guaranteed that they hated him on both counts.  Occasionally it bugged him, depending on the context, but for the most part he shrugged off the hate as the enemy trying to compensate for not being able to outright kill him...  The fact that these enemies could easily kill him made the current turn in the conversation ever so slightly disconcerting.

"You are the poison- the sinner."  The Templar snarled.  "You and that fallen scum dragged the worst sins of Hell back to Earth & Heaven.  You're the viper in the garden, but it's not enough that you damn so many humans- you're tearing Earth & Heaven apart because you're just a selfish dick."

Dean couldn't help but roll his eyes.  He'd heard that song so many times, he could dance to it.  It was his turn to try to convince the Templar that his intentions were noble.  Then he'd be shot down in some sort of argument about moral absolutism.  Sam could've turned those arguments into hours long discussions that left everyone else in an existential crisis, but Dean's approach usually involved it quickly devolving into witticisms like 'go fuck yourself'.

"We're the ones trying to save Earth-"  

"It was going to be paradise, but you had to drag us through the dirt."  It was no surprise that Dean wasn't even allowed to finish his sentence.  "You're the reason the angels fell, that demons walk the Earth, that our cities are crumbling apart!  I had a family and then your war tore it apart!"

Dean's brain hiccuped on the last bit.  He had been so focused on the routine, that he'd forgotten the fact that there was a person working him over- maybe a person who was even less stable than expected.

"I don't know what-"  The Templar hit him again.

"It’s not fair!  My kids were taken away- they were pure, but you- your little half-breed filth son gets to live.  You weren't happy enough corrupting the angels, you had to go muddy their race-"

"Don't you fucking talk about my son."  For a fleeting moment he’d wanted to express some sympathy for the man, but the line had been crossed.  He’d hit Dean’s biggest weakness.  Any hopes of playing it cool or deescalating the situation were dashed.

"You mean the scrawny little cunt that Heaven's gonna flay?"  The Templar leaned in closer and lowered his voice to a venomous whisper.  "When we give you to Michael, how long do you think it'll take before you say yes?  Months?  Years?  And how long do you think your boy's gonna last without you?"

“Shut up.”  The thought was too sickening for him to think of a better comeback.  The family would try to protect Dylaniel as best they could, but he was only nine years old.  He was barely recovered from Sa’dah’s death.  Completely independent of the physical danger he might be in with one less guardian, the loss of his dad would crush him.

"He's big game- you know that, right?  Aside from you and that demon brother of yours, he’s top of every Templar & true angel’s list.  Bagging that demon girl was huge, but when we get your boy-"

It wasn't the most intelligent thing Dean had ever done, but that realization only really sunk in after his teeth had sunk in... to the Templar's ear.  Blood gushed into his mouth as he thrashed his head tearing free a good amount of flesh.  Dean spat the ear & blood at the Templar, who screamed… At least it shut him up.

Dean watched as two other Templars ran in to help their injured colleague.  As he was being helped out of the room, the hurt one said something to the newcomers.  

After a few minutes the newcomers returned.  They didn't bother asking questions.  First they laid into him with their fists, then one of them circled behind him.  A pair of hands held his head still as the other Templar drew a knife.  

* * *

"Dean's missing.  We don't know if he's dead or captured.”  Sam explained to the horrified High Counsel.  “The AFE already has hundreds of search teams looking for him, but they’re essentially flying blind.  We need as much intel as we can get on this situation."

“I take it you couldn’t make a deal on his location?”  Asked Crowley.

“There’s warding in the way or maybe the anti-magic aura is blocking it…”  There was a slight pause while everyone debated mentioning the third possibility, but Sam finally added.  “Or he’s been taken to Heaven- possibly dead.”

He knew the shitstorm that he was bringing up and he also knew that it’d be on everyone’s minds. It had been the first or second thought of everyone when they found out that Dean had gone missing.  Everyone wanted to know what to do if Michael came on the scene, vessel in tow.  Everyone was scared, and that made the situation all the more dangerous.

"If he says yes to Michael, then our troops are going to be completely exposed.  That's an Archangel, who knows every secret the alliance has."  Morrison voiced the general concern.

"He won't break."  Sam stated firmly.

"He broke in Hell."  Countered Hathai.

"The stakes are too high now.  He didn't understand what he was doing back when he was in Hell.  And he has a son-  he wouldn't risk his son's life even for his own."  Sam reassured.

"We should have our troops ready to pull back."  Suggested Pizel.

"That'll cause a panic if word gets out- or it could cause rebellion among the demons with loyalties on Earth."

Since Bethlim, Sam had been hearing about more demons in relationships with humans and non-human natives.  Some of the demons had gone so far as adopt their significant other's children as their own.   Even Anael & Jieshi were rumored to be more than professional partners.

The prospect of telling all their troops that they might be abandoning Earth was unnerving.  When Sam had briefly humored it after Sa'dah's death he had been too distraught to consider the consequences.  But now... It was thirteen years after he'd started passively encouraging demons to form ties with the other species.  In all those years many of them had developed loyalties that threatened to divide their people if the choice was between their homeland or their families.

“We’re not ordering anyone down before we know that Michael has a vessel, but I want us ready.”  Sam instructed.  “We need to be able to house every single demon we have on Earth.  Also, if Michael does get a vessel, we should expect a massive increase in our soul intake.  Make sure we can store as many as possible, they might be all we have to last us.”

"Sir, your family should relocate down here."  Suggested Denerus.

"One of my sons is human, I don't want him exposed to this place if we can avoid it."

Beyond the immediate family, most people tended to forget that the King of Hell had a human son, if they knew at all.  Tom wasn't against the association in general even with the potential for it to endanger him.  There was always the risk that someone would try to use Tom to get to his family, but the incorrect perception that he was somehow less favored had somewhat devalued him as a hostage.  

"And my nephew is half angel-"

"His angel parent can take care of him."  Hathai said in a particularly cold tone.

"I don't think Cas is in any state right now to be the sole caretaker for his son."  Sam felt a little guilty making the judgement.  "He's too upset- he needs support, not to be given extra responsibilities and abandoned."

Cas was a good parent as far as Sam was concerned, but his brother-in-law had a way of prioritizing Dean above everything else.  Sam couldn't say that if push came to shove he wouldn't subordinate his kids to Ruby.  He'd actually done something very similar to what he feared from Cas when he had chased after Ruby during the attack on the coven when Kaylee was still a newborn.  But just because his concerns were hypocritical didn't make them invalid.

Sam had always found Dean to be the more emotional & nurturing parent of the pair.  It'd be a little dismissive to say that it was because Dean was human.  There were plenty of emotional & nurturing angels.  It was probably more that Dean grown up with a dad that never instilled positive emotions and was only nurturing of survival skills. 

Cas didn't have the burden or benefit of actively making up for his own unhealthy childhood- Cas didn't even have a childhood.  The angel was kind & supportive, but at times Sam couldn't see a difference between the way Cas treated Dylaniel compared to any of Sam & Ruby's kids.  In a way they'd taken on a very communal family unit after Dylaniel was born.  With each parent having considerable professional obligations, they took turns caring for the kids as group.  Though Dean always went above and beyond to try to help Dylaniel.

Sam didn't doubt Cas' ability to care for Dylaniel under normal circumstances, but during a stressful time Dylaniel might need extra attention and Cas might be under-equipped to handle the situation.  He didn't want to abandon either of them.

“We hold positions across the board until we see the stormfront.  In the meantime, I want the Maji & Crossroads working together on finding him.  Find every loophole.  Push every spell to the breaking point.  We have hours for every minute up there, let’s make them count.”

* * *

They didn't bother feeding Dean and the water tasted like piss- whether it was his imagination or someone's idea of a joke, he refused to drink it unless a matter of life or death.  He didn't know if starving him was a form of torture or just their way of saving rations, probably both.  It'd been an entire day based on the fading light coming through the mostly blacked out windows in the room they'd left him in.  

The interrogations & beatings had become less frequent, which worried him.  They were probably trying to figure out what to do with him.  Maybe biting the guy had made him too much of a liability?  Maybe they thought he wasn't worth all this effort?  It would've been nice to have some idea what was going on, but his intel was severely limited.

Laying on the thin hardwood floor of the second story bedroom, he could've heard all sorts of things... if he wasn't deaf.  The Templars had taken the exterior half of his cochlear implant before dumping him in the bedroom.  Without the transmitter that was normally worn by his right ear, he basically couldn't hear a thing.  It was frustrating as hell to be bound, in the dark without the ability to hear.  

After a little effort he managed to slip his zip-tied wrists past his butt and around his legs.  He gingerly reached up to his forehead and touched the stinging cuts.  It was hard to focus, but he could make out what felt like letters.  He'd love to return to favor, but that meant getting rescued or escaping first.  And he had the growing sense that escape was his best bet.  With his arms in front of him, he started crawling around the room looking for a way out.

He crawled to the bedroom door, reached to try the handle, but it was locked from the outside- no big surprise there.  The building was likely warded, since they hadn't risked putting an anti-angel ward on his body... or they'd taken him into the anti-magic territory.  Either way he was running out of time.  If the Templars were losing their patience with him, then Heaven would soon show up and he'd be completely fucked.  He couldn't just keep waiting, he needed to get out of the house if he was going to try to pray for help or flee on his own.  

After looking around the room he had a dumb idea, but considering all the factors he figured a certain amount of gambling with his life might be necessary.  He worked his way over to the far wall, carefully pulled himself up, broke one of the darkened window, then threw himself out.  He didn't have the kind of control during the fall to tumble and ended up landing hard on his back.  Through some miracle, his head & neck missed the impact.  He was on the wooden deck that apparently surrounded the home.  It took all his strength to roll onto his stomach and begin crawling for it.  He'd almost reached the edge of the deck when two Templars grabbed his feet and dragged him backwards, over the broken glass.

After the escape attempt, they moved him to a windowless second floor closet.  To prevent him from standing up or crawling they connected the zip ties on his wrists & ankles with a third tie.  He was left on his side, which is how he stayed for a very long time.  Every inch of him hurt, too much to let him sleep, though not quite enough to make him pass out.  He wasn't sure how he was supposed to escape from that setup, so fatigue & despair paralyzed him until he was literally shaken out of it.

The floor shook from some sort of rumbling.  It reminded him of an explosion, but he couldn't be sure.  There were several small flashes of light visible through a crack on the floorboards.  Out of nowhere about ten bullets shot through the floor a few feet to his right.  He rolled to the left wall and pressed against it trying to make himself as small a target as possible.

There was a fight going on downstairs.  He started yelling out to his rescuers and banging on the wall to try to get their attention.

After a few minutes, a woman that he didn't recognize as one of the Templars opened the door.  She said something, but he couldn't hear her.  Her being backlit made it nearly impossible to lip read, which he was normally terrible at anyway.  A moment later a man turned up at her side and handed her something.  The woman walked over to Dean and squatted next to him.  She carefully helped him into a sitting position, then began putting the transmitter for his implant back on him.  He felt like crying he was so relieved that the cavalry had arrived.

Once his implant was switched on & in place, he turn his back toward her to help her access his zip tie bindings... but she didn't move to cut them.  Instead she stood up and looked down at him in amusement.

"Hello Dean, how long has it been, about twenty years?"  His heart sank.

"Lilith."  He whispered.

"I'm so touched that you remembered.”  Her smile made him shiver.  “I’ll admit I had fun with you last time... but I have a lot to prepare.  But to show I’m still a good host I called in one of your old friends to keep you company instead.  He's so excited to see you again."

Alastair...

"He's still working out the kinks of playing with live humans- your kind don't really hold up so well.  Try not to let him down- he has such high hopes for you."

* * *

Dean tried to fight off two of Lilith’s underlings as they grabbed him, but his bindings prevented him from doing much more than wriggling on the ground.  One held him down while the other jabbed him in the thigh with a syringe.  He felt his limbs turn limp, then the room spun before he finally passed out.

He briefly saw the inside of a van.  Based on his perspective he must've been laying on the floor.  He was gagged and his implant's transmitter had been removed again.  His back was killing him for some reason, which unnerved the hell out of him.  The van turned a corner causing him to slide sideways, but he couldn't bring himself to react.  He blacked out again as the van started shaking from driving over rough terrain.

The next thing he remembered was being dragged along a dirt path.  There was a dilapidated factory next to an untended wheat field.  Industrial farm equipment was rusted & abandoned in the distance.  He tried to pray to Cas, but nothing happened.  As little as he thought of Lilith's gang, they weren't stupid enough let him get into a situation to be able to pray for help.  He closed his eyes in disappointment and drifted off again.

When he finally came to for real Dean found himself in another nondescript rundown building that could’ve been in a million quiet corners of the world.  The building may have been another factory, community center, or a sizable residence- he couldn’t tell.  He was in a fairly small room, but through its open door he could see a long hallway with at least two other doors.  

The contents of the room left no doubt in his mind that he was going to be tortured.  A table displayed two dozen implements of pain that Dean recognized and a few that he didn’t.  He had even been prepped while he was unconscious.  His wrists & ankles were strapped to bare wall studs.  The icing on the cake was that he was naked, which only underscored his feeling of vulnerability.

After a few minutes of solitude, a guard passing by the door saw that he was awake.  Alastair came in a moment later and said something to the guard, who nodded then left.  The Archdemon assessed Dean briefly before reattaching the implant’s transmitter.  Dean had to fight the impulse to resist the act out of spite, but he endured the further humiliation in order to regain his ability to communicate.

“I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see you.”  Alastair began.  “I’ve been so busy lately with everything- you know how it is.  But I always had hope that I would get a chance to work with you again.”

“No…”  Dean’s heart was pounding as he tried not to think about the last time they were together.  He wanted to be rebellious, but simply being around his mas- Alastair made him feel weak.  He spoke in something only slightly louder than a whisper.  “Go... fuck yourself.”

"Tisk, tisk.  What happened to your manners?  I see we’ll have to review the basics while we’re at it.  You should be thanking us, Dean.  Saving you from those people- the things they must’ve done to you.  Don’t worry, we killed them all- all of them that were there.  You know how important it is not to leave loose ends.”  One of Alastair’s eyebrows arched at a thought.  “Which raised the question, did any of the Templar women try to seize your line."  

“Wh- what?”  

Alastair was almost certainly referring to the bloodline of Michael’s vessels.  Dean’s discomfort with the entire interaction hit an entirely new level as he realized that he was be asked up he’d been sexually assaulted.  It seemed absurd on its surface.  The Templars had successfully bagged the Sword of Heaven, they didn’t need to take out an insurance policy.  Yet he couldn’t help rerunning his hours of captivity in his head.  With a fleeting moment of relief he reflected that except for the time in the trunk of the car, he’d been awake the entire time and didn’t remember any of them taking advantage of him.  

It was worrying that Alastair had been thinking about the subject.  He wasn’t sure what Lilith wanted with him- a day earlier he would’ve assumed that they’d just want to destroy his soul and kill him on sight, but clearly that wasn’t the case.  Dean was trying to figure out the implications of what Alastair had asked when the Archdemon cupped Dean’s balls with his hand.

"Your bloodline, it’s such a sensitive subject for us all."  Alastair explained.  “We used to have such interesting chats.  The current status of your line is of particular interest- I’ve heard that you have at least one child."  

Dean could barely process what Alastair was saying.  He was painfully aware that Alastair's hand hadn't released him. He wanted to reply with something defiantly snarky, but his thoughts filled with the sound of blood & tears trickling into a pool below him.  Some long dormant part of him cried out that it wasn't time yet to talk- but he wasn’t that person anymore.

"I..."  Dean could barely get the word out before he faltered, handicapped by the trauma of the past and concern for his balls.  "I don't have anything to say... to you."

"Don't worry, I'm not angry.”  Alastair stared thoughtfully at Dean before releasing him, then strolled over to a collection of knives, brands, & whips.  The Archdemon started picking them up one at a time, thoughtfully selecting a tool.  “It's not your fault.  They took you from us when you were doing so well."

While Alastair was debating between a hunting knife and lancet, a woman came into the room.  She had red hair, firetruck red lipstick, and wore all black.  Her smile was predatory and made Dean even more aware of his naked state.  She walked over to the table, then leaned against it to wait for something.  Alastair gestured toward her in introduction.

"I want you to meet someone, this is Abbadon.  She'll be lending me a hand.  You see, as a Knight of Hell, she has quite a rare gift."

* * *

Thirty four hours after Dean went missing, a messenger arrived outside the AFE’s Springfield base waving a white flag.  A routine search of the demon turned up a plastic bag containing a piece of bloody gauze & Dean's silver wedding band.  There was a vampire on base, who was able to confirm that the blood was human & freshness.  By her best guess, it had been shed less than an hour early.  

Kit was brought in to try identifying the blood.  The kitsune had been mentoring under Dean for almost ten years.  They'd been in at least a dozen fights together where Dean had suffered minor injuries.  He turned a little green when he confirmed that the blood was in fact Dean’s.  

The messenger refused to talk to anyone other than Sam, so a meeting was urgently arranged.  Sam, Cas, & Ruby teleported to the base.  When they arrived, they found Tom waiting for them outside the brig.  Tom’s trusty informant Kit whispered something to him while patting his shoulder, then slipped away to avoid any family drama.  

Sam stopped in front of Tom, who crossed his arms in determination.  They hadn’t wanted to draw any of the kids into the whole ordeal any more than necessary.  It was true that Tom was 24 years old, but he had been categorically excluded from the loop.  Yet he’d managed to insert himself back into the whole mess.

“He’s here to talk with me.  We don’t have time to argue, so if you can keep yourself an observer, then I’m not going to fight you on this.”  Sam offered.

“I can.”  Tom spoke with a discipline that he didn’t normally show outside of spellcasting.  Sam nodded, then the group went in to see their prisoner.

The demon was bound by a devil’s trap that was inscribed on the fifteen foot high ceiling.  It looked like his vessel had taken a minor beating, probably from soldiers who knew Dean personally.  

“The Sam Winchester, in the flesh.”  The demon eyed Sam with morbid curiosity.

“Is Dean alive?”  He just wanted to skip all the posturing and cut to the chase.

"He's alive- might end up with a few pieces missing.”  The demon looked to Cas, then grinned.  “I hope you didn't want another kid."  

Cas lunged at the demon, gripping his throat and slamming him through the wooden floor into the concrete foundation below.  He started pummeling the prisoner.  Sam telekinetically pulled Cas off the demon.

"Cas, I know you're upset-"  Sam spoke in a calming voice, but he wasn't sure how effective it could be all things considered.

"They're mutilating Dean!"  Cas struggled against the telekinetic hold.

"And we need find out how to get him back."

Ruby gently but firmly held Cas' right arm.  It was part physical confinement and part providing comfort.  He looked down at her, then stopped struggling against Sam.

The bloodied messenger managed to stand up amidst the splintered floorboards.  He took in Cas' pained appearance, then started laughing.  Sam immediately released Cas and gripped the demon's throat, silencing the laughter.

"You came here to talk.  I'm not going to let you laugh or jerk us around, so talk before I decide you have nothing to say."  Sam squeezed the demon's broken soul to emphasize the point.

"You can't blame us for taking precautions.  We can't have too many of Michael's meatsuits running around."  Said the demon.  Cas looked as though it was taking all his willpower not to kill the messenger.  Sam knew that Cas had also perceived the threat against Dylaniel, and decided to keep the conversation moving before Cas did anything regrettable.

"If that's true, why should we believe he could get out of this alive?"  

"You know, as much as we want him dead, we want you alive more.  We're looking to make a deal, one Winchester for another.  That's like a family tradition for you, isn’t it?"  The demon turned to look at Sam and smiled.  Sam didn't want to turn to see Ruby & Tom's reactions to this development.  "No angels, no Knights, no demons- cause we'll be ready for them and if this goes wrong, he'll be gone and there won't be a shred of soul left to find."

"How would we make the trade?"  Sam asked with a little less confidence, but he recovered quickly.

"There’s a farm three miles northeast of the intersection of CR 410 & CR 430 in northern Texas, be there at 6:00pm local time.  Don't bother raiding it because he won't be there until showtime.  Don't try to trap it beforehand because we've already got eyes on it.  Don't try to be cute because it'll get him killed."

"If I agree to this I'm not going alone.  Dean can't get back on his own- I get someone who'll come along that's capable of taking him home."  The messenger thought on Sam's point.

"You can bring his angel boy toy to get him, but you wear warded handcuffs."  Sam glared at the demon for a few long seconds.

"Deal."  Sam extended his hand to the prisoner, who shook it.

"By the way."  The demon added.  "Every minute over that you make them wait, they'll take a pound of flesh, so don't drag your heels."

* * *

They had just over an hour until the exchange was supposed to occur.  As much as rescuing Dean was also the concern of the AFE, Sam, Cas, & Ruby agreed that trying to accommodate a massive bureaucracy with such a short time window could be disastrous.  The last thing they needed was to have one of the more aggressive commanders unilaterally interjecting a hundred troops into the delicate situation.

When they got back to the bunker, Kaylee was anxiously waiting for them.  She’d been left at home and hadn’t been tipped off to the prisoner’s location like Tom.  It had been agonizing to sit around the bunker waiting for news, while trying not to alarm Alex & Dylaniel.  The two boys had probably suspected that some sort of important mission was in the works, that was a common enough occurrence, but neither of them had been told that Dean was even missing.  She didn’t want to be the one to tell them, so instead she’d granted them full access to the bunker’s media library, then retreated to another room to wait.

"What did he want?  Is Dean ok?"  She barely let them take a breath before starting her questioning.

"Dean's alive-"  Sam started, but Tom interrupted him by jumping to the bad news.

"They want to trade Dean for dad."

Kaylee looked at everyone's expressions.  She hardly needed to ask what everyone thought of the matter.  Her dad & Cas were visibly resigned.  Her mom was harder to read, though she seemed worried & conflicted.  Tom exchanged a knowing glance with her- at least she was guaranteed one person in her corner.  

"You can't turn yourself over to Lilith."  Kaylee was almost pleading with Sam.  There was no point beating around the bush when there was so little time and she appeared to be on the losing side of the argument.  "She'll kill you."

"I'm not going to just turn myself over.  Cas & I will go get Dean back."  Sam’s voice lacked the confidence that she’d learned to recognize while studying him in Hell.  It was telling, even if the others weren’t as attuned to his tonal range.  She’d seen him sell salvation to sin itself, but he knew just how flawed his suggestion was- he was winging it in his desperation.

"That's a dumb plan."  Kaylee said flatly.

"It's the only plan we have.  I'm open to suggestions."  Sam spread his hands to indicate an open floor.

"Bring back up-"

"If anyone aside from Cas & me show, they'll kill Dean."  Sam explained.

"Sam, you can't use your powers on Lilith, let alone with the warded cuffs."  Ruby began voicing her doubts.

"We’ll use some fake cuffs- and I don’t want to fight Lilith to begin with."

"This is still a terrible idea.  What if they just use a rifle on you?"  Kaylee continued her criticism.

"I'll keep a barrier up."  He was suggesting trying to maintain a telekinetic shield, which had always worked better in theory than in practice.  "Anyway, they want to make sure Lilith's the one to kill me."

"You can't keep a barrier up indefinitely while topside.  They could hit you from any direction- you know they're gonna make you exposed."  Kaylee pointed out.

"And just because Lilith called dibs on the killing blow doesn't mean the rest of them won't hurt you.  You'll be up against at least Lilith and who knows what else." Added Tom.

"They'll have at least one Knight."  Commented Cas.

"What?"  Said Sam & Tom at the same time.

"If there's any risk at all that we'll save Dean, they'll want to make sure the... castration... is permanent.  The Knights' powers were directly given to them by Lucifer, their damage can only be undone by Lucifer, Michael, or God.  It would be a likely precaution."

"So, it's gonna be a bunch of demons, at least one Archdemon & a Knight against the two of you with dad's hands literally tied."  Kaylee chewed her lip in frustration.  "Fucking foolproof."

"It has to be just the two of us."  Sam said.   "Lilith is going to be looking for back up."

"She's gonna be looking for angels or demons.  What do they care about a human or two?”  Kaylee suggested.  “Dean or you would trip their own alarm if they have their sensitivity high enough to pick up the blips.  And how would they know how to look for me?  They wouldn't even know how to ward for a hybrid.  I only trip the highest end demon alarms-"

"No way."  Sam's demeanor switched from a weak attempt to hide his pessimism to protective sternness.  "It's too dangerous-"

"Which is why you need backup."  Kaylee objected.

"You don't have enough combat experience- your powers are spotty."

"When it matters I can do it!"

"You're too young to be fighting Archdemons & Knights.  This isn't a discussion.  Cas & I can get in close without blowing the whole thing up.  We have the combat experience.  We will handle it."  Sam laid out his framing of the situation.

"Like Dean would want you two risking your lives for him?  I don't know if you noticed, but you're both being hypocrites."  Kaylee stared her dad down, but he didn't waver.

Kaylee spun on her heels and marched out of the room.  Tom sighed, then followed her down the hall.  The last thing Sam wanted before going on a dangerous mission was to get into a fight with his kids, but he wasn't about to let them join him.

* * *

Ruby touched Sam's hand as she walked out of the room, silently asking him to follow her.  She guided him to their bedroom to talk in private.  

"Sam, I know this isn't what you want... I just...."  Ruby chewed her lip.  She barely knew how to start talking about the subject.  There was hardly any time to process what was happening and the few thoughts that came to her first were unspeakable... but she had to share them with someone.

"Tell me what you're thinking."  Sam offered as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I don't want to be thinking it."  Her voice was hesitant.

"Tell me."

"I know Dean is family- I get that, I really do.  But if Lilith kills you it'll bring us one step closer to the apocalypse... and if she kills Dean- soul & all, that'll take us one step back from the brink."

"And the next step back will be killing Dylan..."  Sam said.  

"I didn't mean- I don't want to be thinking like this, but somebody has to."

"You're not the only one who thought it."  Sam took her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist.  "Cas is going to go no matter what and if he goes alone they'll both be killed.  I can't just let them both die.  I can't start sacrificing our family."

"You're part of our family."  Ruby wrapped her arms around his neck.  "Sam, please don't do this.  You were right when you said it's too dangerous.  I can't lose you, the kids can't lose you- not after Sadie."

She was begging him not to go, but she wasn't fighting him.  It reminded him of an argument that they'd had years ago about taking risks.  Ruby had faced danger to be the kind of person who might inspire their kids and in his fear he'd tried to stop her.  Now the tables were turned, but she left the choice to him.

"I don't want to be the kind of person who would let my brother die when there was a chance I could've saved him."

* * *

After Sam left to get ready for the exchange, Ruby decided to go checked on Alex & Dylaniel, then went to find Kaylee & Tom.  She opened the door to Tom’s bedroom and wasn't surprised in the slightest by what she found.  Kaylee was packing Tom's rifle and ammo case into a duffel while he quickly painted protection runes onto Kit's back.  The three young adults froze when they spotted Ruby.  She looked at the runes, then picked up another brush and began working on a complimentary set.

"Who's using the rifle?"  She asked.

"I am."  Tom said without looking up from his work.  "I have eight corrosive rounds, which should at least take out some meatsuits."

"Try for headshots.  It won’t kill them, but it’s hard to use a meatsuit without eyes.”  Ruby suggested, then glanced at Kit & Kaylee.  “You two are going short range?"

"If I can blink we'll both go melee as fast as possible."  Kaylee explained.  "If it's completely a no fly zone I might have to switch up the telekinesis until I can get close enough to wreck them all with the Light."

"Just because they're brutes doesn't mean you can underestimate them."  Ruby warned.  "They'll probably try to block flight as soon as Sam & Cas hit the ground.  The easiest spell for them to throw together would fall under the gravis excappare effects- just break any clay pots you find."

"Like in Z- Zelda."  Kit said as he stifled a chuckle while trying to hold as still as possible to avoid messing up the runes.

"Those types of spells would still let them smoke out, so watch for anyone running for it.  They could try to get reinforcements."

"I can grab runners."  Kaylee offered.

"Kaylee, once you get in, try not to use any powers until you're ready to hit them.  I know you normally don’t trigger demon alarms, but you don’t want to be pushing your luck with crossing some sort of minimum threshold.”  Ruby paused for a second while considering the last rune in her set.  “Tom, I have a spell that might help hide you all."

"You could come with us."  Tom suggested hopefully.

"If they're using magic to look for demons I'd definitely trip it."  She finished painting the rune, then put down the paintbrush and exhaled slowly.  “I wish I could go… But I know you’ll do great.”

Ruby stop herself from adding anything that conveyed her fears about the situation.  There had been a chance that she could’ve stopped Sam- maybe she could still stop the kids, but too many pieces were already in motion.  If she could physically stop some or all of them from going it would be a betrayal that they might not be prepared to forgive.  Sam was blinded by the risk to his brother, and the kids were blinded to the risks to their assorted father figures.  If she was able to aid Sam instead of endangering him more, she’d be gearing up with them.  She didn’t want to try to tell them all the reasons it might not work.  She wanted to tell them how they might win.

"First priority is don't let Sam & Lilith kill each other.  If any of you get a shot at Lilith you take it."  She got back down to business before the negative emotions could creep into everyone’s minds to breed doubt.  "You're only gonna have a brief window after Sam & Cas arrive before they try to make the handoff.  The shit’s gonna hit the fan somewhere in that window, probably once the facade of a handoff falls through.  You gotta pick your targets, get your first shot lined up, and melee has to be ready to move all in that little window."

"Any ideas on how to slow them down without starting a brawl or letting all of them know we're coming?"  Asked Tom.

"Maybe let one of them know."  Ruby mused as she pulled out her cell to call Flo.

* * *

Alastair & Abbadon worked Dean for hours even after they stopped asking him questions.  There was no longer the pretense of an interrogation- they just wanted to hurt him.  Dean got the strange feeling that Alastair really was trying to save him in some twisted way.  The Archdemon was personally invested in the torture, so much so that Abbadon had to step in at one point to prevent Alastair from overworking him.

After a cut that came dangerously close to his jugular, Abbadon leaned over to Alastair and said something to him in Abyssal.  Dean could barely recoil at the sound.   Alastair considered Dean for a moment, then she pointed at the deep gashes on his torso & arms.  Alastair studied the damage, nodded consent, and left the room.  Abbadon unshackled Dean, then dragged him into a featureless, windowless room.  Once her hand was off of him, he sank helplessly to the ground.  His back stung against the hardwood floor.

"Try not to bleed to death."  She said as she handcuffed him, then left, closing the door behind her.  

Dean's first thought was to allow himself to succumb to unconsciousness, but then he noticed his one spot of good luck.  She had only bothered to cuff his wrists, and she did so in front of him.  With the exception of his injuries he wasn't actually that immobilized.  He gingerly rolled onto his stomach and began crawling around the room looking for anything that might be helpful.

He found a ten inch length of thin wire in a particularly dusty corner.  It wasn't long enough to make an effective weapon, but he was grateful for the tool.  Dean took the thin wire and tied it into a slip knot, then began running his fingertips along the floorboards, checking the nailheads.  The building was old and over time the wood had expanded & contracted repeatedly, separating the wooden planks from their nails ever so slightly.  He found a partially exposed nailhead, tightened the knot around it, then wrapped the remainder of the wire around his fingers.  Carefully, he tugged from different angles until the nail came free.

The nail was less than two inches long, just a finishing nail.  If he wanted something that could actually hurt a person he’d have to pull up enough floorboards to reach the nails used in the studs.  It was slow going, but he systematically worked through one board at a time.  Having the first nail made the process easier, he could gouge away the wood around the other nail heads and use the first nail head to help pry up the subsequent ones.  After removing the nails from each board he was sure to put the board back where it had been previously, that way if someone came they wouldn’t see the hole he was slowly making in the floor.

It was nerve wrecking work, but eventually in the side of a four by four stud he felt a square nailhead.  Dean frantically worked to extract the antique nail.  It was four inches long and based on the rust it was probably iron.  He replaced the floorboards, then clutched the nail tightly in his hands.  His thoughts weren't quite a prayer- he knew no one could hear him, but he whispered to himself that, futile or not, he was going to ram that tiny spike into some demon's heart.

* * *

Tom marked each of their foreheads with the cloaking spell Ruby had given them before they teleported to Texas.  The spell was far from a safe bet, but it was designed with subtlety in mind.  It wouldn’t create any holes in whatever magical maps Lilith might be using to monitor the area, yet it would lessen Kaylee’s chances of tripping any high quality demon alarms.  More than that, it actually made them slightly harder to see when they weren’t moving.  

Kit & Tom had to piggyback on Kaylee’s teleport, which made both of the men have to take a minute to recover.  Thankfully, both of them had piggybacked on her ports before and knew what to expect.  Despite the nausea, as soon as Kit hit the ground he started sniffing for bodies.  They opted to arrive one mile south of the meeting spot, then approach it on foot.  They had thirty minutes to get in position and prepare for the inevitable fight.

Kit guided them across the dry grassy hills, occasionally stopping to sniff the air.  About fifteen minutes into their march he signaled for everyone to get down.  They crouched in the thigh high grass and waited.  The kitsune looked through the grass, watching the tiny dot of a demon patrolling on a hilltop to the northwest.  

“Can you grab a demon that far away?”  Tom whispered to Kaylee, but she shook her head.  The three of them lost five minutes waiting for their route to clear, then they ran to make up time.

They managed to find a decent vantage point overlooking the farm.  Their path had taken them into some slightly rocky hills, which gave them a few good options for hiding.  The ledge where they finally settled was barely big enough for all three of them to fit, but its small size made it less conspicuous.  A large boulder provided cover and a good rest for Tom’s rifle.

"I can smell Dean."  Kit said without bothering to glance down at the farm.  Lilith and her entourage had arrived, with three minutes to spare.  He closed his eyes in concentration.  "He's b-bleeding... and he has burns... and..."

Kit furrowed his brow and opened his eyes.

"What is it?"

"There's other human b-blood, not his.  Maybe a spell?"

"Anti-flight?"  Kaylee asked the resident witch.

"I'm not sure why an anti-flight spell would use human blood- I'd take a bird over a human.”  Tom commented.  “I don’t know what they’re trying to pull with the human blood.”

“The intel m-might not help us- time to send it up the chain of com-mand.”  Kit said as he dug through the duffel bag.  He pulled out the shortwave radio, and handed it to Kaylee with a nod.

* * *

Dean had nearly fallen asleep when two demons came for him.  In his disoriented & naked state he couldn’t think of a way of hiding the nail.  The demons weren’t busy looking for contraband, so he managed to mostly slip it into a crack in the floor before he was dragged away.  As soon as he was out of the room he began questioning his decision to stash his only weapon, even if the weapon was relatively ineffective.

The situation turned out to be better & much worse than he’d feared.  The decision to leave the nail was probably correct since his hands were immediately examined as he was shackled in the room where he had been tortured earlier.  This time however, he was shackled to the table, stomach side down.  A small fire pit held smoldering embers and what he recognized as branding equipment.  

“I wish things could’ve been different.”  Alastair said as he leaned down to be at eye level with Dean.  “But it’s important to remember your priorities and sometimes sacrifices are necessary.”

He had no idea what Alastair was talking about, but it scared the hell out of him.  The Archdemon patted his shoulder, then nodded to Abbadon.  The Knight grabbed a yellow hot metal poker with a fine point and went to work.  

The pain on his back that had been bothering him before was nothing compared to the branding.  It was an overwhelming combination of the searing agony, the almost cold sensation after the nerve endings had died, and the sickening smell of burning flesh.  He screamed and shook violently, but four demons held him down while she worked.  Nothing would’ve made him happier than to pass out, yet he didn’t until he was turned over and she went to work on the front.

He woke up in the same room they’d left him in before.  Gauze & bandages wrapped his torso to protect the wounds on his back.  The same treatment had been given to his crotch.  It was crushing for him to realize that the bandages between his legs were ominously flat.  He couldn’t even bring himself to move- to check the extent of the damage or otherwise.  All he could do was stare at the ceiling and wonder how things could get any worse.

He was tempted to give into despair, but a tiny spark of defiance was still alive in him.  If there was anything he could do to be a pain in their collective ass he would.  His fingertips dragged along the bandages around his lower abdomen when he had an idea.  Slowly, he crawled across the floor, to the crack with the iron nail in it.  He slipped the nail inside the bandages along his right hip just as the door opened and a pair of demons grabbed him.

The demons roughly bandaged & dressed him before teleporting him directly to a different building.  He was dropped onto the concrete floor of a basement, then largely ignored.  There wasn’t much point in trying to escape or attack, he was still handcuffed and now he was outnumbered a dozen to one.  The group of demons were intently discussing something.  Lilith seemed to be giving orders.  Something big was about to happen.

It wasn’t clear what Lilith was telling her subordinates.  If he’d had the exterior half of his implant he could’ve at least been able to discern their tone of voice, but the transmitter had been taken out after he passed out the last time.  As he was studying their interaction he was shaken from his concentration by a strange static cherp.  Reflexively he looked around the basement, but there wasn’t any way he could’ve heard anything to begin with.  When he was getting ready to dismiss the sound as his imagination there was another burst of static, which evened out to a soft hum.

"Uncle Dean, it's Kaylee."  The fidelity wasn’t great, but he could hear her voice somehow.  He tried not to react, though none of the demons were paying much attention to him at the moment anyhow.  

"We're broadcasting on your implant’s frequency.  Dad & Cas are getting ready to make a trade for you.  They know it's a trap, but they're complete idiots.  They don't know that Tom, Kit & I are here to help.  We're trying to finish getting in position to give them support, but we could use a bigger time window once they touch down.  Stall them at the end if you can.  And keep an eye out for spells that you might be able to disrupt subtly- they might be using blood or a clay pot."

Dean covered his face with his hands and tried not to cry for fear that it would draw attention to him.  The torture, the loss, the sound of Kaylee's voice, the thought of Cas & Sam knowingly walking into a trap, the kids jumping in to help save him- it was almost too much for him to take.  He could feel his eyes start to water, but he steeled himself as best he could.

"Also, we love you."

* * *

"I know it's hard to keep situational awareness in the fray, but Kay you can't be blinking between my barrel & targets."  Tom said as he flicked the caps off his rifle's scope, then started adjusting the alignment as best he could based on the wind.  "Keep the sun on your right side with targets in front of you whenever possible so you don't block my shots."

"If we count eight shots, you coming d-down?"  Kit asked.

"We'll see if I can get all eight off."

"Do we even want a long fight or short one?"  Kaylee asked while flexing to test how constricting her clothes were.  She took a knife out of her belt, then cut along the seam at her knees.

"Just o-one w-"  Kit restarted.  "A w-win."

“‘Just a win.’”  Tom parroted.

"They're gonna lockdown flight... I can feel it."  Kaylee glanced down the long rocky hillside to the meeting spot.  Her heart sank as she realized her limits.  "Even downhill, I'm not gonna be able to run the distance in time."

“Are there any anti-flight auras that don’t affect you?  There might be a chance-”

“I’ve never been able to blink through the slightest aura…”  Kaylee looked at the meeting spot, their location, then at the surrounding landscape.  Her mouth moved, but she was too caught up in thought to articulate for several seconds.  "Tommy, how far out is the meet up?"

Tom double checked the infrared laser measure mounted beside his scope, then returned to making his calibrations.

"About 400 yards."

"You have an idea?”  Kit asked hopefully.

"I have a really bad idea."  She gave a weak shrug.  "What is flying if not a controlled fall?"

"That's g-gliding."

"No way, you don't have enough altitude to get you there."  Tom said after assessing the scene.

"I only need like thirty more feet of height."  She nodded as she spoke, more reassuring herself than the others.  "I can use telekinesis to throw myself straight up, pop the wings, and if I arc west into the wind I should have enough lift to make it."

"If they have guns, they will shoot at you and you will have no cover.”  Tom stopped fiddling with his rifle in order to speak directly to her.  He was worried, but knew how hard it'd be to talk her out of any given idea.

“I can keep a barrier up.”

“Can you?  While flying?  Because half the time I still beat your ass in paintball even when you're cheating- and you’re on the ground.”

“My powers work better under pressure.  I’ll make it work.”

“It’s suicidally reckless.”

“If you have a problem with suicidally reckless plans, then you came on the wrong fucking outing.”  Kaylee pointed at the terrain between their perch and the target.  “My alternative is being almost as exposed, but for at least four times as long.  If I can’t blink, then I have to either use my wings or watch the show.”

“Fucking hell...  Fine.”  Tom sighed, then nodded toward another ridge.  “The two of you take off from over there so you don’t give away my position.  But wait for my pull- it's a pain in the ass to shoot once everyone starts running around in a panic.”

“See you on the other side.”  Kaylee hugged Tom, then followed Kit into the tall grass.

* * *

After talking with Ruby, Sam went to try to make amends with Kaylee & Tom.  He'd found them talking in the hallway outside Tom's bedroom.  Apologies were exchanged surprisingly easily and he gave them each a painfully brief hug before going to check on Alex.  He hated the idea of leaving Alex in the dark as to the situation, but he couldn't take another fight right before having to leave.

He made a trip downstairs to have a set of fake warded handcuffs made.  While he was in Hell he warned Crowley that he might be unreachable for a while and that Kaylee could sit in for him if there was urgent business.  It wasn’t unheard of for Sam to let Kaylee take the reins, but each time previously Sam had been overseeing her.  Crowley may have been curious, though he didn’t ask any questions.  Somewhere in their ancient partnership a degree of trust had formed and Sam remorsefully took advantage of it.

Before leaving for Texas with Sam, Cas tried everything he could think of to contact Gabriel.  Unfortunately, the Archangel had a habit of going off the grid with Kali for months at a time.  After giving up on reaching his brother, Cas decided to spend his last ten minutes with his son.  He found Dylaniel in the parlor watching an episode of Planet Earth with an expression that his family knew to be wonder.  Cas sat down on the couch next to him, but he didn't bother watching the television.

If Dean had been there he would've known what to say or do.  He'd have used those precious minutes to find comfort or impart some sort of warm memory should the worst happen.  Instead Cas was alone in a completely foreign social interaction.  The boy had no idea the danger that his dad was in, nor the gamble that was going to be taken.  Cas settled on taking a page from Dean's book.  He gently patted Dylaniel's back, asked him some questions about his favorite parts of the show, then gave him a partial hug before having to leave.

Cas met Sam in the library five minutes before six.  Neither of them were optimistic about the situation, but that wasn't stopping them.  They both rationally knew that trying to save Dean was an unjustified risk.  The problem was that it wasn't a rational matter- it was a personal matter.  The power to save Dean, however small the odds, laid solely in them.  Everyone else could argue about the right answer, but they carried the weight of making the final decision... and neither of them could bring themselves to say no.

* * *

A minute before six, Sam put on the fake cuffs, then the pair teleported to just east of the farm.  They walked around a barn and turned to approach from the south.  The location of the exchange was easy to spot.  A dozen demons stood in a clearing between the barn & a small house.  

Sam quickly accessed the group and recognized two of them as being very powerful demons.  He recognized Lilith, who stood in the front with a smug grin.  The other one he didn't recognize specifically, but the power radiating off him was distinctly Archdemon.

"Lilith's is front.  Arch in the white button up."  Sam whispered to Cas before they got within earshot of the demons.  "None of them are Knights."

"There should be a Knight here.  Something's wrong."  Cas whispered back.

"Everything's wrong."  Sam muttered.

They stopped about twenty feet away from Lilith.  The whole scene was painfully reminiscent of a standoff in some western movie, but this contest was horrible uneven.

"Hi Sam, it's been what eighteen or nineteen years?  Way to make a girl feel like you're avoiding her."  Lilith was way too pleased with herself- Sam could hardly blame her.  She was some unknown number of steps ahead of him and all he could do was react.

He could imagine two likely plays.  Either she'd already locked down flight and was planning to kill all three of them, or she was going to wait until Cas took Dean away before attacking.  The first option sounded more appealing in terms of gains from her side, Dean, Cas, & Sam would all be dead.  But they'd have to fight Cas, an angel who was known for hunting demons and angels alike.  They'd lose Dean, but letting him be rescued would reduce their own losses.

"Where's Dean?"  Sam asked.  He was painfully aware that any moment Lilith could reveal the trap.  Dean could already be dead.  They could already be grounded from flight.  There could be yet another horrible unforeseen aspect to the ordeal.

Lilith shouted toward the barn.  Six demons came out in pairs, each escorted a man.  All three prisoners were Dean's build & complexion, beaten & bound.  They wore jumpsuits with large anti-scrying wards on their chests.  Black cloth bags were over their heads.  Sam used his powers, hoping that two would be demons, but no such luck- they were all human.

"You bring two, so I figured that I'd bring three."  Lilith gestured at the prisoners.  "How do you feel about your odds of trying anything cute?"

"Dean?"  Cas said, causing all three of the men to murmur through gags and struggle against the demons holding them.  Cas & Sam exchanged an unsure glance.  Sam wasn't sure why Lilith was taking the extra precaution until she tossed something onto the ground between Sam & Cas, it was a pair of warded handcuffs.

"You're going to put those on."  She instructed Sam.

"My word is binding."  Sam said as he held up the fake warded handcuffs on his wrists.

"Then there's nothing wrong with being a little extra bound."  Lilith smiled.  "It's not that I don't trust the word of the king, it's just that you aren't the king.  You're the thing standing between us & him."

Sam had been hoping that Lilith's demons were under the same misconception that permeated his own ranks.  Rumor said that, like Crowley, Sam was oath bound from lying.  The reasoning was that surely the King of Hell's word carried at least as much binding power as the Archdemons, Crowley included.  They had passively nurtured the inaccuracy by having Sam stay as honest as possible, thereby disguising his rare lies.  As Crowley liked to quote 'If you're going to lie about something, make it something worth dying for.'  While trying to save Dean's life seemed to qualify, Lilith & her team hadn't been fooled.

"So, put on the cuffs or your brother will be dead before you can know who to save.  Unless you're the gambling type."  Lilith walked past the three men, dragging a knife in front of their throats.  "They say you've got some power, but how's your finesse?  You think you can take out all of us and not hit the three of them?  Think you're quick enough to stop me from finishing the job?"

Sam reluctantly crouched down and picked up the cuffs.  He didn't know who to try to save or how to go about doing it.  The only thing he knew with confidence was that if he stalled much longer the fight would start.  Everyone was watching him- almost everyone.  A few eyes flicked nervously at Cas, probably fearful that the angel would take advantage of the distraction.  The fact that some of them were worried about Cas ever so slightly tipped the scales in Sam's mind.  The lesser demons didn't want to fight Cas, it didn't seem to be something they were planning on, so maybe Dean & Cas could get out of this alive.  The deal might be legitimate.  

He clicked the cuffs onto his wrists, then held them up.  As soon as the second cuff was closed he could feel his inhuman senses shut down.  It was a little disorienting, but he didn't want to show his new weakness.  Lilith nodded in satisfaction, then turned her head toward the house without taking her eyes off Sam.

"Bring him out!"  Lilith yelled.

Dean was dragged out by two demons.  He was conscious and had both arms & legs, but that was about the only good thing that could be said about his condition.  He wore baggy clothing that allowed peeks at blood soaked bandages below the surface.  His cheek & jaw were a large swollen bruise, hinting at possible fractures below the surface.  Several deep cuts marked his face, but the flesh was too puffy to discern an image.

He was followed by a red haired woman in black clothing, who moved with a telling confidence.  Sam didn't need his powers to tell him that she was a heavyweight.  

With one hand Lilith gestured for the two demons to hand off Dean to Cas while using the other to signal for Sam to walk over to her.  After a moment's hesitation, Sam slowly started walking towards Lilith.

When Sam got within a few yards of him, Dean lifted his head slightly.  Seeing his brother made Dean start to breathe harder.  He reached out to Sam almost imperceptibly and tried to shake his head.  Dean was trying to stop him- maybe warn him about the trap, but Sam already knew he was walking into one.

When the demons carrying Dean got close to Cas, they shoved him forward, but his arms dragged against them slowly and he collapsed to the ground.  Sam stopped walking to watch his brother.  He & Cas were both seething at Dean's state.  Lilith & her demons seemed to be in a weird mixture of amusement and surprise that he'd ended up so injured.  Everyone had expected him to be able to keep himself upright, but that appeared to be asking too much.

Cas cautiously stepped forward, then knelt down to check on him.  He carefully picked Dean up, though for some reason Dean wasn't exactly cooperating.  Cas struggled to hold him without pressing on any of the numerous injuries.  When he was upright, Dean rested his head on Cas’ shoulder.  The urge to immediately heal Dean was overwhelming, but Cas had to reserve his power for getting Dean out of there if possible and hopefully immediately returning to help Sam.

"Cas, get him out of here."  Sam yelled while eyeing Lilith.

"No, we can't leave."  Dean whispered into Cas' shoulder.

"It's going to be okay."  Cas assured Dean.

"You don't understand."  Dean's voice became very intent, which gave Cas pause.  "Please trust me."  

"Cas, go."  Said Sam.  Everyone was watching the disorganized interaction.  The plan had been for Cas to try to get Dean out of harm's way then return to assist Sam.  It was dangerous, but with a Knight potentially in play they had no way of knowing to what extent Cas could even heal Dean.

"Babe, heal me."  Dean whispered.  "The fight is happening.  They need our help."

Cas turned his head to look at Dean and his eyes widened subtly.  Dean had said 'they', not 'he'.  It wasn't clear what Dean knew or who exactly he was talking about, but Dean was asking for his trust- something that had been earned countless times over the years.

"If you'd rather stay."  Lilith sounded surprised, yet positively delighted.  

* * *

Eight of the demons circled around to flank Cas & Dean.  Lilith took a few steps forward and began raising her hand toward the couple.  Sam closed the distance in a single long stride, tackling her to the ground.  

Abbadon drew a knife, then ran to attack Sam.  The sound of a loud gunshot surprised everyone, especially the Knight, who staggered backward a few feet in shock.  The gunshot wound in her chest hissed & bubbled as a several inch diameter section was corroded away within moments.  Blood began pouring from the wound before she fell to the ground.  Her body shook as she tried to recover from the massive shock to her meatsuit.

Cas healed Dean as best he could, but Dean wasn’t really well enough to fight.  He was more or less capable of standing on his own, so Cas released him in order to draw his blade and fight the demons that had surrounded them.

There was a second loud gunshot, which was a headshot on one of the demons Cas was fighting.  Dean & the dozen or so demons who weren't yet actively engaged in combat looked around to see where the shots were coming from, but they were immediately distracted by Kaylee.  She was gliding toward the brawl on her long black wings.  Dean recognized her rigid posture as maintaining some sort of power.  He realized she was using telekinesis when four of the demons drew guns and started firing at her.  She managed to deflect most of the shots, but several bullets connected with her wings.  A third shot from Tom’s rifle incapacitated one of the demon's shooting at her.

Despite the minor damage to her wings, Kaylee reached the farm in almost no time.  Rather than trying for a gentle landing, she ceased manifesting her wings when she was about ten feet off the ground.  Her momentum carried her into a tumble.  She rolled right into the middle of the fight, settling on her back in front of the demons who had just been shooting at her.  Before they could get another shot off, she blasted them with the First Light.

Another demon made to attack her while she was trying to get upright, but Dean threw himself at the attacker.  They wrestled for a moment before Kaylee grabbed the demon’s hair and slit the her throat with an angel blade.  Kaylee offered Dean a hand up before giving him the blade, then turning to help her dad.

Sam was wrestling with Lilith.  He was on top of her, but his hands were still bound by the cuffs.  She kneed him in the groin, which made him fall forward.  He pressed the handcuffs to her throat and leaned on her with all his weight.  He could feel something in her neck pop, but it didn’t stop her from clawing at his chest.  Despite being unarmed, she was physically strong enough to tear at his skin.  To stop her from doing anything more than surface damage, Sam tried to pin her arms with his knees.  He managed to get her left arm pinned, but her right arm broke free just as an underlings slid an angel blade across the ground toward her.  When he saw her reach for the blade, Sam moved his wrist along her neck to force her face away from the blade.  Her hand desperately groped around trying to find the weapon.

"Separate them!"  Yelled Cas as he was intercepted by three demons.  

Kaylee reached out with her powers, but she couldn't grab Lilith.  While she was distracted, Alastair rushed her from behind and stabbed Kaylee in the back.  The four inch knife went in to the hilt, but before he could begin slicing sideways to do more damage there was another loud gunshot.  Tom had shot Alastair through the arm holding the knife, in one side of the ribcage, out the other side, & through the other arm.  The rapid corrosion of the flesh threatened to cut his meatsuit in half, so he smoked out.  

Kaylee fell into a kneeling position, but reached out to clutch the Archdemon's smoke cloud.  She'd only ever killed demons in Hell where it was much easier to use her powers and she'd never tried to kill an Archdemon.  He fought her grip, but she kept squeezing him.  She could feel her body tensing from the strain of using her powers, which caused blood to trickle from her wound faster.  For a moment she thought she was going to break first, but Dean hurried to her side.

"I've got you."  He said as he applied pressure to her back with a bandage on one of his forearms while using the other arm to hold her upright.  Dean looked around the battlefield then spotted Cas finishing off another demon.  "Cas!  Need you!"

When Lilith realized that she couldn't reach the angel blade while pinned, she shoved Sam backwards.  Once freed she grabbed the blade, then got to her feet.  She made to attack Sam, but another rifle shot collided with her.  It missed her head, but hit her left shoulder.  The impact threw off her balance, causing her to spin and fall to the ground as the corrosion burnt her arm from its body.

After being shoved backward by Lilith, Sam landed hard on his back.  He had barely hit the ground when he saw the ghostly-pale & bloody Abbadon swinging a knife down to stab him.  He tried rolling to the side and only received a cut on his arm, though the Knight's knife caught his jacket, pinning his arm to the ground.  Taking advantage of his impair mobility, she knelt down on his neck.  Sam kicked and jerked, trying to fight against being choked unconscious.  But just as his vision to fade, Kit leapt onto Abbadon knocking her off of him.

Kit managed to slash the Knight three times before she landed a punch, snapping two of his ribs.  A second punch connected with his face, fracturing his right cheekbone.  She gripped his shirt and threw him off of her, then scrambled to her feet.  The kitsune turned his tumbled into a somersault, gracefully rebounding off of a lesser demon.  Rather than attempting to pounce on the physically stronger foe again, he decided to use his dexterity to his advantage.  He sprinted passed her taking slices at the tendons in her arms & legs in order to make her meatsuit even harder to manipulate.  She swung at him several times in frustration before finally connecting with his upper body, break his collarbone.  A forceful kick while he was stunned knocked him to the side of the barn, where he fell limply to the ground.

Cas heard Dean call out for help as he pulled his blade from the chest of his fifth demon.  Another loud gunshot dropped the demon standing between him & Dean.  As he ran to Dean he saw the blood dripping down Kaylee’s back.  She was struggling to restrain Alastair in his cloud form.  Cas laid his hands on the wound and healed her.  The effort used up even more of his limited power reserve, but without her injury Kaylee managed to crush Alastair to death.

Six demons rushed Kaylee, Dean, & Cas.  Kaylee used the First Light on two of their attackers, but she had to stop short of hitting Cas & Dean.  Cas positioned himself between the remaining four attackers & Dean.  Kaylee tried to get to her dad, but the group of demons blocked her path.  She was running low on energy, so she opted to try smiting the demons with her touch rather than a beam.

Sam was laying on the ground, not yet recovered from nearly being choked unconscious.  His vision wasn’t focused and he was still pinned to the ground by Abbadon’s knife.  A lesser demon approached him, but another shot from Tom's rifle obliterated the demon’s upper torso & neck.  

Lilith picked herself up despite only having one arm and significant blood loss.  She staggered toward Sam, angel blade in hand.  As she walked, her body swayed sporadically causing her to incidentally evade Tom’s last bullet.  Sam tried to grab the knife pinning him to the ground, but with his hands bound he couldn’t quite reach it, so he yelled out for help.

Cas dodged two demons as he charged Lilith.  She parried his strike, then counter attacked.  He dodged three chaotic swings, but the two demons he had dodged moved to flank him.  Unable to retreat he tried to attack her again in hopes of finishing it.  He managed to slice her wrist and disarm her, but before he could finish following through she held up her hand.  She immobilized him, then focused, preparing to use the Light of Hell.

Kaylee threw as much force as she could towards Cas & Lilith.  Her powers didn’t work on Lilith, but in theory she could throw Cas.  The conflicting telekinetic forces stressed his vessel almost to the breaking point, though he ended up in better shape than he would’ve if she hadn’t thrown him.  A moment after Cas was knocked out of the way, Lilith’s light weapon scorched the two demons that had been flanking him.

Kaylee ran to help her dad, but Abbadon intercepted her.  Abbadon swung a knife, cutting a large gash along Kaylee’s right cheek.  Kaylee raised her hand at the Knight, but before she could create the scorching light Abbadon dodged and swung at Kaylee's chest.  

Dean tackled Abbadon, knocking her to the ground.  The knife skidded out of reach.  Despite the pain of his injuries, Dean climbed onto the Knight and started pummeling her in a rage.  He was screaming at her while he beat her meatsuit's face bloody, but she only laughed.  

She started to open her mouth, undoubtedly to make some sort of teasing jab, but he was beyond banter.  He pulled the iron nail from his waistband and stabbed it in her left eye.  She screamed as he hit the nail with his hand, breaking the thin layer of bone behind the eyeball and embedding it in the brain.  To his surprise, her body flickered & went limp.  The combat rush drained from him and he collapsed sideways next to the Knight’s body.

Realizing that all of her allies were dead, Lilith picked up the angel blade, then swung down at Sam’s chest.  But before she could connect, Kaylee grabbed her from behind and pulled her back.  Kaylee's right hand clutched Lilith's wrist, burning off the hand holding the blade.  Her left hand gripped Lilith's neck, burning the Archdemon from the inside out.  Kaylee dropped the the dead meatsuit before falling to her knees beside her dad.  She pulled Abbadon's knife from the ground, then offered him a hand up.  

* * *

Their return to the bunker brought comfort, but it wasn't the ideal homecoming.  Dean still had significant injuries that weren't treatable with angelic healing, so Cas took him to the AFE's best hospital. Once Dean was recovering after several hours of surgery, Cas collected Dylaniel to visit his dad.  

Kit declined an invitation to recuperate from his Knight-inflicted broken bones at the bunker, instead opting to return to the Lexington base.  As much as he was friends with Tom & Kaylee, he didn't want to become overly intertwined in their family life.  For years Dean had been his mentor and being invited into their home was dangerously close to blurring relationships.  Instead, he merely accepted a few thank you's before returning home.

Sam took turns hugging Ruby & each of their kids before letting Tom stitch up the cut on his arm.  Watching Tom stitching up his arm, Sam marveled at how much his kids had grown up.  It was the first time that he had really seen them in combat.  He'd seen them training for years, but never in the field before.  It wasn’t clear what would’ve happened if they hadn’t come to help him.  What was clear though was that they had each saved his life at least once.  They were daring & capable- beyond his love, they also had his professional respect.  

After retreating to their bedroom for the night, Sam held Ruby in his arms for a long time.  He wasn’t sure if he felt any regret over his decision to go- it was hard to say for certain that he made the wrong choice when they all got out alive, but he knew just how painful the experience must’ve been for her.  She was too relieved to chew him out, yet she wriggled out of his grip enough to look him in the eyes.

"You can be a huge pain in my ass sometimes- scaring me like that."  Ruby poked her index finger against his chest a few times in a mock display of discipling.  "You aren't allowed to make dumb decisions, mistakes, or take crazy risks.  For fuck's sake, I was the reasonable one & you were the emotional one- that's never a good sign."

"I'm sorry I broke our system.  No more mistakes or risks."  Sam said, making a promise that they both knew he couldn't guarantee.

Ruby smiled up at him, but she didn’t have the heart to play along.  She pulled him down into a kiss before the charade of lightheartedness broke.  They desperately stripped each other of their clothes and tried to find comfort & security in each other.  Afterward, Ruby stayed in the bed, letting Sam fall asleep spooning her.

There was an oppressive darkness- a void, empty of life, time, & hope.  Sam was waiting in it for something.  There was no telling how long he'd been waiting, but it felt like multiple eternities.  

Some time ago he'd spoken to a man- it was a demon, but that was better than nothing.  He gave the demon a piece of himself in exchange for a glimmer of hope.  It was nearly a literally glimmer.  In his eagerness to see results his imagination got the better of him.  He put his plan in motion and thought to the future anew.  Then from nowhere he heard whispers.

Sam could hear his own voice.  He could only hear his own side of a conversation, which gave him a strange feeling of deja vu.  At first it was confusing, but eventually he recognized the conversation as when he confronted Dean about selling his soul.  His voice shifted to another interaction a few months later, then a few weeks after that.  As time passed his voice became louder & clearer until it sounded like he was nearby.

"Can you hear me, Sam?"  Asked a voice that was so close it seemed to be coming from his own soul.  

There was a rush of excitement.  He'd made contact after being isolated for so long, but the other him panicked.  He was been resisted- blocked somehow.  The other Sam's voice was distant and it was difficult to pinpoint.  Then out of nowhere the darkness was broken by a sunrise.

The sun rose over some pathetic farm.  There were over a dozen newly rotting bodies scattered in a clearing, they had been inhabited by demons.  He could sense that his old creations Lilith & Abbadon had once possessed two of the bodies, but their deaths didn’t trigger any emotions in him.  

He supposed it was a strangely common sight, this world had been littered with the dead... with imperfections.  The world was infested with mortal creatures- it was practically made of corpses.  It was some disgusting iteration of what it'd once been.  He’d seen immortals die to save its purity, but now… now he could feel how few their ranks were and for what?  His brothers & sisters were so lost.

“The world isn’t how I’d expected it to be.  We can make it right.  The way it was- better even.”  Sam was caught between eagerness & horror.  The voice speaking was painful to hear, yet strangely beautiful.  “Sam, I know how you’ve enjoyed making so much from so little.  Together we could create even more- we could save Earth.”

White light overtook the depressing scene.  An intense cold grew inside Sam’s chest, spreading out through his body.  It overwhelmed every one of his senses until he couldn’t perceive anything else.  The cold light was going to consume his entire existence.  The light was planning on it.  The light was hunting him.

Sam sat up in bed.  His body was trembling and a light sweat cooled on his skin.  He touched his chest just over his heart.  For some reason he expected it to feel cold, but the pounding of his heart helped ground him in reality.

“Are you okay?”  Ruby asked.

“I don’t know…  I had a nightmare, but it felt different.”  He shook his head, but the echo of the voice rattled in his brain causing a slight migraine.

“Like a vision?”

“Not really, it was-”  Sam was interrupted by the sound of Alex screaming down the hall.  

They both ran to check on him.  The boy was crying out in his sleep.  Sam woke him up, but it took Alex a moment to stop shaking.  When he tried to sit up in bed he nearly keeled over before   
Sam could catch up.  A few drops of blood trickled from Alex’s nose as Kaylee walked into the bedroom clutching her head.

“What the fuck just happened?”

* * *

 

03/03/2028

Cas sat by Dean's bedside while his personal physician, Mary, gave him a thorough examination.  Dean had barely been conscious when they'd arrived at the AFE hospital.  A routine effort was made to heal any of his remaining injuries with magic & angelic powers, but when nothing proved successful they resorted to human medicine.

He was put on intravenous fluids & pain medication until a full assessment could be made and treatment decided on.  The combination of the long period of severe pain, drugs, & emotional trauma left him fairly unresponsive.  Once the combat high had finished he was overwhelmed by the situation.  His eyes were raw slits that avoided everyone else's and Cas was forced to speak for him throughout the intake & examination.

Most of the damage had been done by Alastair and was thus healed easily enough by Cas, but Abaddon had been used to ensure that there were significant lasting injuries.  She had inflicted five broken ribs, dozens of cuts on his arms & torso, and several more serious injuries.  

Abaddon had mostly followed Alastair's orders, but she did take one indulgence.  She traced over the Templars' carving on his forehead so that it would remain a permanent fixture.  When the swelling had gone down the slightly jagged letters of 'sinner' were legible.  Of the more unusual injuries, the forehead carving was easiest to address, so that's where Mary began giving her report.

"The cuts on your forehead went through to the small layer of muscle along your skull.  We can use a skin graft to improve your appearance, but there will be subdermal scarring that you will probably still feel.  You might have some sensation through the skin graft, but we couldn't predict how much or how accurate it would be."

"Accurate?"  Cas asked.  Despite the fact that Mary was addressing Dean, it wasn't clear how much of the information he was actually processing. Cas had to try to be Dean's advocate.

"The procedure would require severing even more nerves.  Nerves do grow back, but there can be an impairment to the signal or sometimes it never returns.  The practical risk is numbness, phantom sensations, or chronic pain."

For the moment Dean's forehead was bandaged, obscuring the damage.  Being cut across the forehead had become a pretty standard insult to enemy soldiers, but almost no one actually walked around with the scars.  In general, those that were marked were either killed or healed after the fact.  Aside from the Knights, Raphael & Gabriel were the only people in the field capable of doing lasting damage and neither of them bothered to deface bodies.

"The branding on your back appears to be a hex.  Several of our magics healers were looking at countering or removing the effects.  We discussed the possibility of removing branded area, but it's unlikely that it would remove the hex itself.  The damage extends into many of the muscles in your back. Trying to cut away all that tissue could cause all the same symptoms I described for the skin graft plus impairment of motor skills."

"What's the effect of the hex?"

"It appears to block supernatural forms of communication.  No magic comms, no telepathic connections-"

"He can't pray."  Cas said as he looked over at Dean.

Cas had blown it off as being the stress of the past 36 hours, but he'd felt like something was off about interacting with Dean.  Normally, Cas could read Dean fairly easily, partially due to their intimate relationship though Cas also was highly attuned to Dean's needs.  Beyond being considerate, he had a habit of listening to Dean's silent whims- his unconscious prayers.  But with that form of communication blocked, Dean was even harder to read and at the worst possible time.

His behavior & mood was understandably unpredictable.  There were certainly going to be emotional manifestations of the ordeal, but it was too soon to have a full sense of it.  An hour earlier, Dean had feebly tried to fight off the two nurses who attempted to place IV lines.  Cas wound up being the only person that he'd allow to touch him- until he was largely sedated.  Once he was in the bed there was even less behavior to interpret.

Despite not being very communicative, it was obvious that the thing that bothered Dean the most was the loss of his penis & testicles.  He was partially sedated when Mary went to remove his pants during the examination.  She didn't fall for his attempt to redirect her attention, then  began silently crying.

"You need surgery to treat your wound.  They cauterized it, but that only stopped you from bleeding out.  At the very least we need to remove the damaged flesh, give you a skin graft and make sure your urethra is functional."  She hesitated for a moment.  "Technically speaking, it's possible to give you a prosthetic- even an artificial penis with skin, but it wouldn't have feeling or be sexually functional."  

Mary paused to allow them a chance to ask questions, but neither took advantage of the opportunity.  Cas was too busy watching Dean for his reaction.  Dean's lips thinned slightly and he closed his eyes for a moment.  When Dean didn't meet Cas or her face, Mary decided to continue.

"Since testosterone is primarily produced by the testicles you'll have to take supplements to compensate for the loss.  It might take some time to figure out the right dosage for you and you'll need to monitor your levels periodically."  

"Can you give us a few minutes?"  Cas asked Mary.

"Of course, but we really need to get him into surgery as soon as possible."  Mary patted Cas' shoulder as she left the room.

Cas watched Dean for several seconds.  He was hoping that Dean would take the initiative to talk first, but he didn't- he didn't even look at Cas.

"Did you hear what Mary said?"

"Yeah."  Dean's voice was weak and broke with emotion.

"Do you have any idea what you'd want to do?"  Cas asked.

"No."

"We need to decide-"

"Babe,"  Dean leaned his head back against his pillow as a few tears fell from his eyes.  "I can't do this... I just..."

"Yes, you can.  We're going to get through this together.  We'll adjust."  Cas took Dean's hand.  "This is like your hearing loss."

"It's not the same."

"You've been through so much and you have every right to be upset, but once you've had some time for the shock to wear off you'll see that it's just another injury."  Cas dragged his chair closer to Dean's bedside and leaned forward.  "You're still my husband and Dylaniel's dad.  You're still you."

Dean faced Cas and squeezed his hand in the first gesture of reassurance since arriving at the hospital.  Dean looked down at his body, then took a deep breath to collect himself.

"I don't want some fake thing."  Dean eventually said with a tired determination.  "I just want to be me- whatever that is."

Dean's first surgery lasted five hours.  When he woke up, he saw Cas sitting in an uncomfortable hospital armchair.  Dylaniel was curled up, sleeping awkwardly on his xe's lap, using the armrest as a pillow.  Dean gave Cas his first smile since the whole nightmare had begun.  Neither of them wanted to say anything that might wake up Dylaniel, but their mere company brought a profound comfort.  

After a few minutes, Dylaniel shifted and opened his eyes.  Dean waved for his son to climb up on the small hospital bed with him.  He didn’t care if his broken ribs were sore Dean held his son close until they fell asleep. 

* * *

 

03/04/2028

Aside from the unpleasant awakenings at the bunker, the morning after Dean's rescue was unsettlingly quiet.  Not a single servant of Heaven attacked the AFE.  Except for the occasional holy season's ceasefire there hadn't been a day globally free from attack in over a decade.  It was alarming to not understand what Heaven was up to, but by midafternoon a rumor began circulating in the AFE.

The story was that angel radio had received a signal from someone claiming to be Lucifer.  Zie had offered a simple warning.  Forgiveness would be given to zir brothers & sisters who wanted to restore Heaven & Earth to a state of purity.  Everyone else would be killed.

Beyond a mere rumor there was something more, a change in the mood.  Deep down every angel could feel the field shifting around them.  If it wasn't actually Lucifer, then another power player was entering the contest.  Some angels insisted that Lucifer was really back, but many wondered how he could’ve gotten out and where he might be.

The AFE's command called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation.  Cas, Sam, Ruby, & Kaylee all attended.  Cas & Ruby went in their normal functions as commander & adviser.  Dean’s presence was requested, but Cas & his doctors wouldn’t allow anyone to interfere with his recovery.  As unusual as it was for Dean to be absent from an emergency meeting, Sam & Kaylee’s presence was even rarer.

For the most part Sam tried to stay out of the way of the AFE.  The intricacies of the war on Earth were only his concern to the extent they affected his family, Hell, or if there was a very low risk way he could help.  Kaylee may have periodically shadowed Dean to get a better understanding of the AFE's operations, but she primarily received training from her dad in ruling Hell.  Only the most dire events could drag both Sam & Kaylee into a meeting like this.  They weren't brought into the meeting as representatives of Hell, they were there as Lucifer's vessels.

"Do you have any idea if the rumors about Lucifer are true?  Is he free?"  Bishop asked Sam.

"I think so."  Sam answered grimly.

"He's contacted you."  Anael wasn’t really asking, Sam’s concern was telling.

"I think- yes.”  He nodded.  “I know he has.  He contacted the three of us this morning, but it was only for a few seconds."

“Three?"  Anael's eyes quickly checked the room until she remembered that there was a lesser known younger child.  "How old is your other child?"

"Thirteen."

"Are you telling me that we're relying on some thirteen year old de-"  Started Marcus, the former hunter.

"Marcus, shut up."  Snapped Bishop.

Of the twenty people in the meeting room, there were six demons.  Every demon except for Sam blinked their eyes black and glared at Marcus, daring him to make this about species.  Admittedly, it was taking a significant amount of self control for Sam to not telekinetically knock the chair out from under Marcus.

"Contacting such a young vessel is dangerous, no matter the vessel."  Anael said in an attempt to draw their attention back to the important matter.

"Is there a way of blocking the contact?"  Asked Tamara.

"The protections we have in place aren't strong enough now that he's on this plane."  Ruby commented.  "You can bet it's my top priority."

"Is there something we can do in the meantime?  Can angels communicate with vessels who're unconscious?"

"Angels routinely contact vessels while they are asleep."  Cas explained for Tamara.

"Is there something more powerful than sleep we could try?"  Marcus muttered.

"If anyone tries to touch my son,"  Ruby scowled at Marcus as she spoke.  "I will kill them."

"I was-"

"Don't sell me on strategy, I'm not going to hear it.”  Ruby continued her threat.  "War.  Politics.  I don't give a fuck.  You touch my son, my family- I'll kill you.  Understood?"

Everyone except Ruby looked around the room at each other's reactions.  Ruby didn't break her gaze away from Marcus until he nodded.  Her eyes flicked to Sam, who gave her a subtle smile of admiration that went unnoticed by the others.

"How is Lucifer even free?"  Tamara asked in an attempt to draw the meeting away from the tense subject.

"I killed Lilith."  Sam said, cutting off Kaylee before she began.  He was absolutely forbidden from fighting Lilith, but the ban had cautiously been expanded to all Abyssal, including Kaylee.  Despite the slim chance that it would be relevant that Kaylee had been the one to kill Lilith, he knew that releasing Lucifer would carry some stigma whether it was an accident or not.

"You knew the risks of killing Lilith.  Her death was a known possible trigger for the release of Lucifer."  Anael said in surprise.  Despite her initial dislike of demons, Sam had won over her respect.  The idea that he might’ve done something so devastating was almost a personal betrayal.

"She was going to kill me, so I figured that it was better to have me be the one to live."  Sam countered.  

"It was a no win scenario."  Added Cas.

"You let yourselves get into that situation."  Suggested Finch.

"If you think that I would let Dean die-"  Cas raised his voice and started to move to stand up, but Hael & Ruby each grabbed one of his arms to calm him down.

"You two withheld information vital to our efforts, led a mission that endangered several of our assets, and you," Bishop looked at Sam with slightly more disappointment than anger.  "freed Lucifer.  This is a serious matter."

"I understand just how serious it is, but I don't know how you all want me to make penance.  You can't arrest me- I have to command in Hell, now more than ever.  I'm not happy about what's happened either, but I don't know how you want me to make it right."

"There might not be a way to make this right."

* * *

 

Sam called a meeting of Hell’s High Council to discuss the situation with Lucifer.  He recounted Dean’s capture and the rescue.  It was no secret that most of the Archdemons disliked Dean, so he wasn’t surprised by the not entirely sympathetic audience.  Crowley was particularly quiet during the explanation of the events he’d turned a blind eye to.  When Sam got to the end of the story he had to take a second to fight off the urge to sugarcoat it.

“Kaylee killed Lilith.”  The Council murmured, but he cut them off before anyone could express happiness at the news.  “Heaven believes that Lucifer is free.  I think they’re right.”

The Council was silent from shock.  Crowley put down his glass of scotch without bothering to take a sip.  Morrison & the other more liberal Archdemons dimmed slightly below their shells.  Deepra, the Archdemon for the newly created engineering caste looked horrified.  Hathai sat up in her seat and seemed to glow at the news.

“Lucifer- are you sure?”  Asked Crowley.

“He spoke to me and I’ve been having visions...”  Sam took a deep breath.  “I can feel it.”

“But you didn’t kill Lilith, you’re the one that needed to kill her in order to free Lucifer.”  Said Denerus.

“We don’t know that.  He adopted the name, but we don’t know that he’s actually Lucian.  His daughter could’ve been Lucian the entire time.”  Suggested Morrison.

“You have a lot to answer for-”  Hathai began chewing Sam out, but he cut her off.

“Take a look around and tell me what I have to answer for.  I’ve helped pull Hell from the edge of destruction and you’re going to flay me over a fucking name.”

“You stole a holy name!”  Hathai shout in outrage at his indifference to the crime.

“I used-”  Sam stopped and corrected himself.  “We all used a popular name & rumor to rally support for our side."

"I think we've lost the forest."  Crowley interrupted.  "Lucifer- the Lucifer is going to come down here eventually."

"Good.  We can use all the help we can get."  Said Hathai as she straightened defiantly in her chair.

"Help?  He would cut our alliance with the humans.  It would be political suicide."  Countered Denerus.

"Not just political suicide."  Sam added.  "We can't let him into Hell.  If we do he'll destroy us."

"Lucifer created us, he wouldn't turn around & harm us."  Suggested Pizel.

"He created us to spite God- God isn't in the game anymore.  We're pawns that he doesn't need."  Sam relayed what had been the consensus of the angels he’d consulted with.

"But why would he want to hurt us?  It doesn't make sense to create, just to then destroy."

"He's from the school of thought that we're below even the humans- that was the joke.  He didn't make us to be better, he was showing how easy it is to ruin them."  Sam explained.  "To him, our people are a blight.  He's not going to save us, he's going to purge us."

"You lack faith."  Snarled Hathai.

"And you're blinded by it."  Sam huffed at her.  "I almost want to see the look on your face when he betrays you."

"You're his vessel, aren’t you?  If you're right you'll see the look on my face when you both betray us."

* * *

 

As King of Hell, Sam had seventeen Knights of Hell under his command.  Fifteen had sided with Lilith and roamed Earth, leaving fourteen for Lucifer after Abaddon's death.  Twenty remained dormant in their tombs, apparently waiting for something more interesting than the end of the apocalypse.  Sam had never before managed to get all seventeen of his Knights together at once, but it was an unusual time.

Sam sat on his throne and watched as his audience assembled.  Most of his aides and the Archdemons were in attendance, though Hathai & Mizaman were notably absent.  After realizing that the two Archdemons were loyal to Lucifer, Sam had them quietly confined in the Citadel's most secluded & secure dungeon.  As much as he hated Hathai, he was disappointed to be taking such drastic measures.  Once the Knights were figured out they could begin increasing security, which was their top priority.  Then he could meet with the most likely candidates to replace Hathai & Mizaman to see if he could find some allies within those castes.  

When the last Knight arrived Sam flicked his wrist, closing the doors.  He didn't bother looking at the Archdemons, they were all on his side.  The Knights were the ones he was trying to sale to.  In some respects they were a more powerful asset the Archdemons in the coming political conflict.  They didn't have the same tribalistic unity with members of a caste, like the Archdemons, but they were among the elite group that could make judgments about Lucifer based on personal experience.  

"We've worked together for a long time and I consider many of you my friends, so I'm not going to lie to you.  Lucifer is free."  Sam didn't need to look at the Archdemons to know that they were scared of how the Knights would react.  As much as he was trying to exude confidence, he was trying to feel out his audience, looking for possible threats.  "Lucifer will be looking for a vessel that can contain him for awhile, but he'll eventually make a play for Hell.  The current leadership of Hell has decided to resist his attempt to enter and retake Hell."

Sam waited a beat to see if any of the Knights we're going to attempt anything, but none of them made a move.  He could feel their discomfort and silently begged that it didn’t turn to anger.  

"Lucifer has spoken to me.  I have felt his anger & disgust.  He may have made Hell, but he will try to kill us just like the humans.  He made us weak.  He didn't design Hell to survive.  Whole species of Abyssal have died off because he didn't care about making a plane sustainable.  To him we are a means to an end- disposable.  Our people are an experiment in satire to him and his audience is gone.

While he may have given you power, he also cursed you to an eternity of servitude.  I'm not asking you to be disloyal.  I’m asking you to consider where your true loyalties lie.  Are they with your people & your home or is it with the angel who only made you as an instrument of pain to be focused on others?  Lucifer is not one of us- He’s not better than us.

I refuse to let an angel sit here and command the Abyss.  We may have angel allies on Earth, but we will not blindly bow to an angel- especially in our own domain.  I will do everything in my power to stop him.  I understand the difficulty position this puts you all in.  It is a lot to process, but we don't have much time before we need to act.  I need to know whether each of you is with me... or not."

The conflict was very real.  Each Knight had sworn loyalty to Lucifer & Hell, but at the moment those two loyalties were arguably opposed.  Under Sam's rule Hell had flourished beyond anyone’s expectations.  But Lucifer had personally selected each of the Knights and granted them profound power.

Many of the Knights looked between each other trying to decide how respond.  Mir stood at the front of the group and never turned to look at the reactions of another Knight.  He stepped forward until he was about five feet in front of Sam and slightly to his right.  Silently, Mir turned to face the other Knights.  He stood at attention, guarding Sam.

It wasn't a surprising gesture coming from Mir, but it was appreciated all the same.  In the three years since Sa'dah's death, Mir had become even more fiercely protective of Sam & his family.  Sam had wondered if the Knight's abnormally slow recovery from the injuries suffered in Los Angeles had been related to the despair that had taken hold below the Knight’s silent surface.  It had been a difficult time, but once he was able, Sam made a point over visiting the injured Mir to provide whatever forgiveness & reassurance he could.  They had been close before, but their shared grief had cemented their friendship.

"Well, I'd be a fool to argue with Mir."  Joseba said as he moved to stand in front of Sam, who could sense the crowd warming to his side.

"I stand with Hell."  Tora looked around at the bizarre flowering vines that climbed the walls.  "I stand with the monsters that make beauty, not the angel that made monsters."

Tora moved to stand beside Joseba & Mir.  After her, the levee broke entirely.  Every Knight swore loyalty to Hell above Lucifer.  There was something to be said for the power of patriotism & mob mentality.

* * *

 

03/11/2028

“Alex, are you even listening to me?”

Ruby stared across the table at her son.  He was slowly dragging his spoon through his cereal without actually eating any of it.  When she said his name, he glanced up at her.

"What?"  He asked softly.

“Let me see your eyes.”  For the last few years Alex had kept his eyes solid black.  He hesitated for a few seconds, then blinked them to normal.  The whites of his eyes were bloodshot.

“I had trouble sleeping again.”  Alex muttered.

"I'm getting Cas.  You need to get some rest-  I don't care if we have to knock you out cold."

It had been a rough week.  Sam, Kaylee, & Alex had suffered at least a dozen visions a day plus the nightmares.  They caught glimpses of carnage, but it wasn't entirely clear what was happening in any given instance.

The ordeal had affected the three of them, but Alex was having a particularly difficult time.  He was naturally more sensitive to all things Abyssal or magical.  More than half of his visions had resulted in nosebleeds or migraines.  As a result, Alex had to spend a significant amount of his time recovering at the bunker rather that visiting bases or training.

Ruby found Cas & Dean in their bedroom.  She could tell that she'd walked in on some sort of tense moment.  Dean was seated on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and a particularly withdrawn expression on his face.  Cas stood a few feet in front of him with his arms crossed in front of his chest.  They both turned to look at her.

"Sorry to interrupt."  She offered.

"It's fine."  Said Dean, grateful for the distraction.  "What's up?"

"Alex hasn't been able to sleep.  Cas, would you mind knocking him out and doing what you can for him."

"Of course."  Cas said, then looked pointedly at Dean as he added.  "I'm always happy to help."

Dean sighed as Cas walked past Ruby and out the door.  Ruby turned to follow the angel, but Dean stopped her.

"Rube,"  She looked back at Dean.  "can you help me with something?"

"Sure thing."  She stepped back into the bedroom.

"Can you shut the door?"

"Okay..."

"I've got this brand on my back- the doctors say it's a hex.”  His eyes flicked down to the floor, avoiding hers.  “I just... I wanted to get a second opinion on it."

He stood up, turned his back to her, then gingerly started to take off his shirt.  Part way through he slowed down and she could see why.  Large yellowing bruises covered his torso and numerous stitches held together long, jagged cuts.

"Fuck.  Let me help you with the shirt before you hurt yourself."

"I'm fine."

"I've been hearing that a lot lately and I'm not buying it for a second."  Ruby started gently sliding his arms through the sleeves.  "You want my help, well you're getting it."

Once the shirt was removed she got a good look at the hex marking on his back.  It was a circle slightly larger than a foot in diameter with a fair amount of detail work inside.  Despite the rough line work, she was impressed.

"The design is quality.  They must've had a high level witch or Maji helping them.  It looks custom…  there are at least four different schools being tapped…  interesting..."  She blinked her eyes black to take a better look at it.  "It's blocking communication...  Wow, you dodged a bullet.  If they had been any vaguer with this script work it could've killed your ability to use any sort of assisted hearing."

"What?"

"It's the difference between unnatural communication & supernatural communication."  She explained.  His breathing became shorter & faster as he swayed slightly.  "Alright, you're sitting down.  Neither of us wants you passing out on me."

"The docs told me it messed up... I didn't even think about my implant or anything."  He said after sitting back down on the bed.

"Have you tested the limits of the hex at all?"

"No.  Cas has been playing middle man for me with the AFE- actually..."  Dean chewed his lip.  "I think it's been causing some problems between Cas & me."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess he used to use some of his mojo to sense my moods and stuff like that.  Now that he can't it's making things... difficult."

"Wait, were you guys fighting?"

"It's not exactly like fighting.  It's just sometimes things mess with me and he doesn't get it."  Dean he covered his face with his hands.  "The other day I yelled at him.  He knows I don't mean it- he would've known- now... I don't know.  I just thought we had a better relationship than this."

"Okay, first thing you need to do is take a step back.  It's normal for couples to fight every once in awhile- especially when you're stressed out.  You went through a ton physically & mentally.  Cas was a wreck when you were missing.  The world's completely fucked- a couple's fight sounds pretty normal."

"But we don't fight."

"Yeah, because apparently you two have been cheating for like two decades."  Ruby shrugged a little.  "Don't get me wrong, you've come a long way since I've known you, but you can still be hard to read at times.  And Cas isn't great at reading people because he hasn't really had to learn that whole deal with you."

Ruby gently touched the branded flesh on Dean's back.  He flinched from the contact, but there was still too much nerve damage to make it very painful.  

"This hex isn't going anywhere.  You two are gonna have to start talking through stuff more than you’ve been lately.  Just think back to the old days when you used to explain everything to him."  Ruby grinned at a thought.  "I watched you explain the plot of Memento to him.  If you can explain that you can explain what’s going on with you."

"Memento is simple compared to our lives."

* * *

 

3/19/2028

Dean walked down the street of the Wenatchee base.  Passersby whispered, but he wasn't sure if he should take it personally.  Rumors about his capture had spread to nearly every base before he'd even been discharged from the hospital.  Four days after returning to work he wasn't sure whether the rumors detailing his injuries had spread to the west coast or if they were still limited to the central United States.  Though he supposed he couldn't be sure the whispers were even about him.  It seemed like everyone was talking behind each other’s backs.

It was unnerving to see how shaken everyone had become at the news of Lucifer's release.  He understood the impulse to be cautious, but he'd hoped that their makeshift army had solid enough bonds to withstand the new threat.  Maybe he'd been foolish to think that something as big as Lucifer wouldn't rattle them?  He probably just hadn't considered the matter closely enough.  It certainly felt like pessimism was the popular outlook nowadays.

As he was walking from the mess hall back to headquarters, he saw a group of four people being escorted into the brig.  Two of them he recognized as angels, but the others weren't familiar to him.  After consulting his watch, he took a detour to follow them.

"What's going on?"  Dean asked one of the guards.

"They're part of the scead- scadun-"  The guard fumbled on the unfamiliar word.

"Sceadugenga."  Offered one of the angel prisoners.

"Just call it the shadow choir."  Dean instructed the guard while pinching the bridge of his nose in proximate embarrassment & annoyance.

"Commander Barbosa ordered that the choir be detained until the situation with..."  The guard hesitated to even say Lucifer's name.  "until it's resolved."

"The choir?  You're kidding- the situation with Lucifer isn't going to be resolved until the war is over.  He's out there now and the only way we finish this is to kill him.  Locking up every single person who knew him is going to cripple us."

"Sir, I don't know what to tell you.  Barbosa-"

"Fine.  I'm gonna go talk to him.  In the meantime, they're your brothers & sisters in arms.  If I find out that any of them were mistreated by anyone at all, I'm gonna take it out of every guard's ass."  Dean turned to address the prisoners.  "I'll send for Rachel.  She'll make sure you're taken care of until I can get this straightened out."

Five minutes later Dean barged into Marcus Barbosa's office.  They'd never liked each other, but for years their mutual animosity had at least been buried.  Marcus had been part of the AFE since their first meeting in San Francisco, brought in because of his position within the hunter community.  While he'd signed on to save Earth, he'd managed to stay wary of its non-human residents.  For the most part his biases didn't play out, but with a new wave of fear & distrust running through the ranks he'd gained a bit more initiative.

"Everyone except Marcus, out now."  Dean ordered as he entered the small office.  The three assistants & junior officers looked anxiously between Dean & Marcus.  After a moment, Marcus nodded, giving them permission to leave.

"You can't just order people around anymore."  Marcus said while smugly leaning back in his chair.

For the last few years there had been talk about Dean stepping back from his role as leader of the AFE in North America in order to help pass the torch to the next generation.  He would still be available to act as an adviser yet the hierarchy wouldn't be crippled if something were to happen to him.  It was supposed to be a gradual process, but his capture served as a reminder that he was in danger more often than another leader might be.

Despite having a designated regional leader, the AFE had always operated more as a meritorious republic, with all high ranking officers getting their word in.  It wasn't the tightest military structure, but it provided voices to the minority parties to the alliance.  Previously, as official leader, Dean's word carried the most weight, but the decision to transition him away from that role had been interpreted broadly.  

It didn't help that he'd been forced to take ten days off to recover from his torture.  In his absence, the truth & speculation had mixed into rumors that his demotion was related to his capture, either that he was too traumatized to handle command or that the whole incident involved his professional incompetence.  Everyone who knew him understood that the rumors were false, but the fact that everyone else still whispered them drastically undercut his authority.

"I can still give orders to whoever I damn well please and if you have a problem with that you can blow me."  Dean growled.

"Easier said than done,"  jabbed Marcus.

Dean clenched his hands to stop himself from reaching for his pistol.  The last thing he needed was to further undermine his credibility by shooting another officer.  He took a calming breath before changing the subject to business.

"I'm here about the sceadugenga.  You can't just arrest them for no reason."

"The whole choir sided with Lucifer in his Rebellion."

"That's not good enough.  We don't know why they sided with him back then.  Lucifer's Rebellion was the only game in town, maybe they thought it was their only chance at freedom?  Maybe they were tricked?  The sceadugenga fell as a unified choir- maybe their loyalty is to each other, not him?"  Dean gripped the back of the chair he was standing behind.  He sighed, then pulled the chair out from in front of Marcus' desk and sat down.  "I know that we haven't always gotten along, but you’ve gotta listen to me.  We can't do blanket arrests.  We're gonna start a witch hunt."

"We've had over a thousand troops defect to Lucifer's side-"

"And if you start throwing people in the brig without a trial you're gonna drive even more of them off."  Dean pursed his lips in frustration.  "Do you have any fucking idea how it looks to be rounding up the sceadugenga?"

It was annoying that most humans knew so little about angel culture.  Each choir had its own quirks and history.  As easy as it might be to assume that nothing exciting happened in Heaven between Lucifer's Rebellion & their current war, that kind of ignorance was dangerous.

"That's what Heaven did to them after the Rebellion."  Dean couldn't stand the bored look on Marcus' face.  "They've spent millennia in our enemy's prison and now you're throwing them in ours."

"It's a security decision, not a political one."

"They're the same fucking thing."

"We're going to be hit from the inside if we aren't careful.  We can’t afford to lose more people."

"We already are!  I just watched us lose four because you had them thrown in the brig."

"Better to have bodies in the brig than in the pyre."

* * *

 

05/02/2028

"I can't believe we're doing this."

Dean leaned against the doorjamb while he watched the tribunal.  Three angels, four humans, & one demon were questioning an angel about his loyalty.  The angel sat in a chair at the center of the meeting hall.  The panel had been questioning him for almost an hour, which meant that there was at least another half hour to go in the best case scenario.  Worst case scenario would involve him being cut off abruptly and thrown back in his cell, but that tended to happen within the first thirty minutes... Actually, the worst case would be another prisoner trying to kill the panel.

"Most angels wouldn't find this as offensive as you do."  Cas tried to reassure.

"That's its own problem."  Dean felt Cas' hand touch his shoulder, but it was cold comfort.  "At the very least there should be more angels on the panel.  Having four humans telling angels how they feel is a fucking sham.  The demons are getting better treatment than you guys and they worship Lucifer."

Dean knew that wasn't entirely true.  Hell was barely holding itself together.  Sam was pulling 72 hour shifts downstairs trying to keep morale up despite the drive to clear out Lucifer supporters.  There was some sort of massive infrastructure project going on in Hell that Dean didn't quite understand, but apparently it was one of the biggest undertakings in the plane's history.  All the changes in Hell were more significant than he'd given them credit for and even if he wasn't really sure of the details he could see the of magnitude their change written all over his brother.

The whole thing was made worse by the effect Lucifer was directly having on Sam.  Dean knew that Sam had less of a need to sleep than a full human, but he was borderline on testing the necessity.  Sam was eating less, to the point of visibly losing weight.  He barely even reacted to even the most grotesque visions anymore.  He'd just quietly stare at nothing, then rejoin the conversation.

When he did come home, it was a struggle to get him to take care of himself.  So much of his time was spent trying to make sure the kids were okay.  Tom was understandably worried like everyone else.  Kaylee & Alex were both slowly being worn down by the limited sleep and stress.  The entire unpleasant experience had left Sam a little more inclined to drastic measures, something that he tried to rein in, but at times he wasn't successful.

"Is Sam killing the demons loyal to Lucifer?"  Cas asked, not entirely sure how he felt by the prospect.

"I don't know...  it wouldn't surprise me."  Dean frowned at the thought while watching the tribunal.  "It's different down there- the only way he can keep the highlight bright is to keep the shadows dark."

Earth was different than Hell, it had to be.  Suffering & pain was intrinsic to Hell- he wasn't sure if he was prepared to say that hopelessness was part of its domain.  Sam had done a lot to change Hell, to make it a source of potential redemption, but he couldn't let it become weak.  The institutional brutality of Hell endured... and maybe in Earth's desperation it had picked up a few dangerous habits.

Dean hated watching the change unfold.  If there was one thing that Earth had always embodied it was the struggle for freedom.  Now they were pulling back from that ideal, leaving the people who were most vulnerable exposed.

He was probably the first to admit that he felt for the fallen angels.  Beyond the fact that he was literally part of the family, he found that he could relate to them on some personal level.  They had been blindly loyal to a strict, absentee father.  They were raised with black & white views of the world, only to find themselves caught in a sea of grey.  They were trying to adapt to a new existence & identity by embracing what it means to be themselves.

Many of the other humans didn't understand the fallen angels, which worried him.  Since angels were generally considered the most powerful of the species and there were so few of them compared to humans or demons, there was a tendency for them to be treated with caution.  Significant portions of the AFE's human & demon population outright avoided interacting with angels.

Beyond his philosophical views, he had a selfish interest in the social status of angels.  His husband was an angel.  His son was half angel.  It was unnerving to think that on some level the AFE might be condoning discrimination based on their species.  He knew that there were moments of tension between the factions, which were brought out more during difficult times.  In the past their leadership had always pressed for unity.  This time though, it was institutionalized fear & distrust.

"I can't watch this."  Dean muttered, then turned his back on the spectacle.  He started walking through a small service hallway toward the back exit of the building.  

Cas put his hand on Dean's arm, stopping him in a dimly lit corner.  Dean looked back and they met each other's eyes for the first time during the entire conversation.  Cas tilted his head as he studied Dean's expression in a gesture that was equal parts endearing & painful reminder that Cas was having to trouble reading him.  Cas moved a step closer, but Dean put a hand on Cas' chest to stop him.

"You're upset.  I want to..."  Cas glanced between Dean's face & hand.  "I want to do whatever is right."

"I know... thank you.  I just-"  Dean felt too lost to even begin to know how to find comfort.  "I don't know what's right...  Everything is too wrong."

"Tell me what I can do-"

"Cas, please don't- don't give me another problem to solve right now.  I can't take it."  Dean squeezed Cas' hand, but he couldn't manage a reassuring smile.  "I need some air."

Dean walked out the side exit of the building into an alley.  He went out onto the street and saw another group of three angel prisoners waiting for their hearings.  He walked faster as he turned away from the depressing sight.  Cas followed him out of the alley in concern.

"Dean, wait.  I-". Cas called out to him.

A passerby lunged forward, stabbing Cas in the abdomen with an angel blade.  He pulled the blade out of Cas, then made to stab him again but stopped short.  One of the angel prisoners had sprinted forward and pulled the attacker off Cas.  The attacker sliced at her, cutting across her neck from her right clavicle to her left ear.

Several other soldiers wrestled the attacker to the ground while a high enough choir angel was fetched to heal Cas & his rescuer.  Dean scrambled to Cas' side and held him.  He started crying despite Cas' pained whispers of reassurance.  

Rationally Dean knew that Cas wasn't at risk of dying from the injury, but he was too upset about everything that was happening to hold back the tears.  He'd been depressed, fearing for the world & his family, worrying about his relationship with Cas.  He'd tried to get some distance so that he could clear his mind, but he'd almost gotten more distance than he could stand.  

The attack shouldn’t have been a complete surprise, but for their personal distractions.  It was one of over a dozen that had happened since Lucifer's return following the same pattern.  It wasn't because Cas was an officer and it wasn't random.  From the beginning Lucifer's side had been targeting nephilim and their parents.  The attacks weren't open like normal warfare, they were assassinations.  A few weeks earlier two of Lucifer's agents had hit the AFE's daycare center that specialized in nephilim.  Five nephilim children, two parents, & two caregivers had been killed in the attack.  

It made sense that eventually one of Lucifer's followers would make an attempt on the couple that was most frequently associated with nephilim.  The danger had been brushed aside too many times.  There was so much to be done that the need for precautions were subordinated, but not anymore.

After the assassination attempt on Cas, both him & Dean were escorted by bodyguards whenever they weren't in the bunker.  It was a cramp on their autonomy, but not as much as the restrictions placed on Dylaniel.  

The boy was practically confined to the bunker or three other high security facilities.  Not only was he the most famous nephilim, but after Dean's capture, he was the only person who could carry on Michael's bloodline.  Dylaniel being stuck at home was distressing to the whole family, but with the situation outside devolving so badly it was getting harder & harder to argue with the precaution.

* * *

 

05/07/2028

Cas walked up behind Dean and hugged him.  He kissed Dean's neck, then circled around to face him.  Dean returned Cas' kiss, but his body inched away as Cas tried to close the distance.  The angel didn't notice at first and pressed forward in excitement over the most passionate kiss they'd had in months.  But it stopped abruptly when Dean's hands gently pushed Cas' lower body away.  

It had been two months since Dean's castration.  In that time they'd only engaged in fully clothed kissing while avoiding Dean's crotch and Dean had taken to sleeping in pajama pants.  Cas had tried to be sensitive, though there had been little to no progress.  He wasn't about to demand sex, but he wanted the issue to at least be acknowledged.

"Dean, please...  You're just making yourself feel worse by hiding it."  Cas observed.

"I'm not in the mood.  It's a legitimate medical thing."  Dean said defensively.

"Your medication should be taking care of that- If you're still having trouble it's probably depression or negative body image."

Dean turned and stepped away from Cas.  He hated when Cas suggested he was depressed- he wasn't sad, he was frustrated.  His problem was physical.  It was an injury he could deal with.  

"I'm fine- I just pee sitting down now." Dean joked, but even he didn't think it was funny.  "No big deal."

"If it's no big deal, then take off your clothes."  Cas hadn't seen Dean naked since it'd happened, even in the hospital.

"Babe, I'm not-"

"Take your clothes off or I'm taking them off of you myself."  Cas took a step toward Dean, who recoiled a little while positioning his hands in front of his crotch.

"Jesus Christ, Cas!"  Dean hopped backwards and huffed.  "I'm not into this whole dom side of you."

"Stop evading the subject."

"You know what?  Shove it up your ass- God knows I can't help you with that."  Dean's voice was a mixture of pain & bitter snark.

"I understand that you're angry & embarrassed, but the monsters that did this to you aren't here.  They aren't relishing in your pain or suffering from your anger.  It's just the two of us.  And I'm trying to help you."  Cas placed a hand on Dean's shoulder.  "But you're so distressed that you're hiding from me, physically & emotionally.  I know you don't want me to see, but you have to face that fear... That way you can remember that I love you no matter your form."

Dean hesitated for a long moment, then pull off his shirt and slipped off his pants & boxers.  Instead of a penis & testicles, there was just a fresh scar.  The scar was a thin red line that descended between his legs.  It reminded him of the crack on a woman, especially now that his pubic hair was growing back after having been shaved for the surgery.

He could feel himself turning pink.  His legs unconsciously turned inward to try to hide whatever could be hidden.  He was ashamed, laid bare & barren.

Cas approached him thoughtfully.  The angel's eyes took in every scar, the slight crow's feet, the grey hairs, & the implant behind his ear.  He saw all those things, but they hardly registered compared to the man that bore them.  Cas caressed Dean's abs before wrapping his arms around Dean's waist.

"You're still the most magnificent human I've ever seen."  Cas said as he kissed Dean deeply.  After a moment’s hesitation, Dean returned the kiss then pulled Cas to him.  

Rationally, Dean knew that very little had changed.  At almost fifty years old he wasn't planning on having anymore kids.  Even from a purely recreational perspective, things weren't too different.  Despite his earlier outburst, Cas was the top in their relationship.  Had Cas been castrated they would've needed to rework their routine.  

Rationally, it wasn't a big deal... but Dean was having trouble being so rational.  He was caught up in a confusing crash of emotions that he hadn’t really thought through.  He tried to bury away his insecurity in his love & lust.  

He could feel Cas' dick getting harder and pressing against him.  It was strange to not be rubbing his own cock against Cas.  In some ways the absence was horribly distracting, yet once his embarrassment was pushed aside, he realized it made him extra aware of Cas.  

His anticipation grew, creating that heat in his gut... but that's where it stayed.  With a slight pang, he realized there wasn't anything he could do for himself.  He wanted something, but the only satisfaction he could get now was from having Cas inside him.  He desperately pulled down Cas of his clothing, then laid down on their bed.  Cas climbed on top of him and began preparing him.  

After a few minutes Cas was inside him.  It generally felt good, but there was a strange vulnerability to it that he didn't understand.  Cas wasn't doing anything wrong or different than normal, but the intimacy was somehow tarnished.  

Dean wasn't as emotionally engaged.  He felt needy, pathetic, broken.  Everything was confused and overwhelming.  He tried not to think about his feelings.  He just focused on being fucked.

He felt the build up and release.  His orgasm was somewhat satisfying, but it wasn't exactly the explosion of ecstasy that he was used to.  All the sense of power came from Cas- he loved feeling Cas' strength & passion, yet that didn't mean that he liked subordinating himself or being gentle.  Cas might've been the top, but Dean had always taken charge.

Now though, he felt strangely passive.  There wasn't any sign of his own lust or hard power.  When he came there wasn't any showmanship, just a soft moan and a little dampness between his legs.  This time Cas had been physically on top of him, since he was too emotionally unsure to lead.  It felt wrong.  It's wasn't exactly that Cas had overpowered him, but more that he was underpowered.

He loved Cas and was comforted to know that his husband was still attracted to him.  Yet at the same time, the experience underscored the fact that something else was very wrong.

* * *

"Hey Rube, can we talk for a sec?"

"Sure, what's up?"  Ruby didn't bother looking up from her work.  She was drawing out some sort of design on the desk in Sam & her bedroom.  When Dean closed the door behind him, she put down the pencil and gave him her full attention.

"It's personal- like if you tell anyone..."

"Lips are sealed."  She even mimed the zipping of lips.

"I'm having some trouble being with Cas since..."  He didn’t know how to refer to his castration.  The whole family knew, except for Dylaniel who hadn’t been told any details of his dad’s injuries.  Nobody had talked about it, everyone was uncomfortable talking about it, including himself.  But desperate times called for desperate actions.

"Your surgery?"

"Yeah..."  Dean sat down on the edge of the bed, then took a moment to gather his courage.  "It doesn't change the logistics really, but I feel like less connected- that's not right.  I used to be more engaged and now- I don't want to feel like I'm just laying back and taking it."

"Okay..."  Ruby's eyebrows rose at the unexpected candidness of the conversation. Dean & she would regularly share confidences, but they almost never talked about their sex lives aside from tangential mentions when they were having the kids.  

He gave her credit for not reacting to the fact that he was a bottom.  Over the years he’d heard enough derogatory comments or tone deaf jokes to know that most people assumed he was the top in the relationship.  He was sure the assumption was based on the fact that he had the more dominant personality of the pair while in public, and while he wouldn’t have been surprised that someone as close as Ruby knew that he rarely fit the stereotypes, it still was nice to see that she wasn’t phased.

"I was thinking, since you're a woman- I mean you don't really have a dick to begin with."  He chuckled nervously.  "Not that I have tits for Cas to play with."

His eyes wandered anxiously around the room.  He wasn't even sure exactly what he was asking for, help certainly, but he didn't know how she could help him.  She was just the person he felt most comfortable talking to.

"That wouldn't even solve your problem though.  You don't need Cas to have a good time.  You're the one that needs more."  He didn't argue with her, though he had trouble meeting her eyes.  "Can you still get off?"

"More or less,”  The sensation was too hard to describe, so he focused on the attainable- the logistics.  “but not... from the outside."

"You have any toys?"

"No!"  Dean could feel himself blushing. "I'm into Cas, not random anal."

Having sex with Cas was its own separate thing.  Yes, it was fun and scratched some primal itch, but it was about their relationship first & foremost.  He wasn't looking to just be on the receiving end of anything other than Cas.  

"You're not gonna feel in control of your own sexuality if you're entirely dependent on someone else.  I don't care if he's your husband- I mean, you used to jerk off even though you were married right?"

"I came to you to get sex tips, not to talk about masterbating."  The truth was that he used to masterbate regularly.  He wasn't sure why he was embarrassed to admit it.  Everybody masterbates and his evasion was pointless.  He wasn't so much embarrassed to admit to jerking off, it was then facing the prospect of explaining why using a toy was appalling... There was something there, but he didn't really want to look too closely at it.

"Tough shit.  I don't care how great Cas is in the sack, if you're not feeling confident & sexually independent you're gonna be uncomfortably as hell & left wanting.  You're new to this, so you've gotta watch out for that trap."

"I'm 'new to this'?  Are you gonna give me a pamphlet?"  He was surprised by the determined tone of her voice.  Apparently, it was a topic she’d thought about before and felt passionately about.  Despite his discomfort with the conversation he didn’t want to discourage the her, though he did try to lighten the mood.

"No pamphlet, just a secret handshake- Seriously though, I'm a woman, having shit power over our sexuality has been like part of our unifying cultural identity since the beginning of time."  Dean raised an eyebrow at the thought, but didn't question it.  "Did you know most women can't get off from straight up penetration?  Don't get me started on missionary, what a fucking sham-  You're probably better equipped now to get a woman off than before-"

"I'm not so interested in calm diving anymore."  Dean said, cutting her off with the tiniest of amused smirks.

"I'm just saying, sex is more complicated than shoving tab A into slot B.  And maybe your options are a little limited, but trying to work on your confidence and taking control again could make all the difference.  Have you tried cowgi- cowboy?"  Dean's lips curled helplessly into a smile at her correction.

"I used to be on top of him most of the time."  Ruby nodded as she took in the information.

"Do you two do the whole snuggling thing afterwards?"

"He stays with me while I sleep afterwards."  Dean corrected.

"Have you snuggled since the surgery?"

"Yeah."  Dean's brow furrowed, then he sighed.  "He's been concerned about me... He's been holding me- to comfort me, but it's not the same.  I miss his head on my chest with my arm around him.  I miss him clinging to me instead of the other way around."

"So what, him trying to comfort you has switched the dynamic in your relationship?"

"I'm cool with him supporting me, but I just want things to be normal again…”  Dean massaged his tired eyes and tried not to think about everything that was going on with the AFE or the problems the brand on his back had been causing.  “or as close to normal as they can get."

"Get back to that."  Ruby prescribed.  "Know that you can treat yourself, give yourself back that independence & confidence.  Tell him you need to take charge.  Then go to town."

"Thanks, Rube."

"Tie him down while you're at it.  I have this set of cuffs-"

"Stop.  Please don't give me any disturbing mental images."  Dean realized he was sitting on Sam & Ruby's bed and hastily stood up.

"Scared it'll be hard for you to get it up?"  Ruby teased.  He halfheartedly punched her in the shoulder, but he had to admit it felt good that she wasn't treating him like he was made of glass.

* * *

 

11/21/2028

"Help!  Somebody help!"

Ruby blinked to Tom's location in the bunker, one of the parlors that they used as a family room.  Alex was convulsing on the floor while Tom tried to clear objects & furniture out of his way.  The couch was on fire and a side table moved in violent jerks across the room.

"Watch his hands!"  Tom warned.  "He lit the couch when it started."

A moment later, Cas appeared in the room.  He carefully touched Alex's forehead, causing him to go limp.  The angel's hand rested on Alex's head for a second while he assessed his health.

"He had a seizure."  Observed Cas.  "There's an echo- I think it was from a vision."

Ruby rolled Alex onto his side and checked his mouth to make sure the airway was clear.  She carefully rested his head on her lap, then began counting out his pulse.  She looked up at Tom & Cas with a startled expression on her face.

"Sam & Kaylee- they might be in trouble too."

"Kay's was supposed to be shadowing Dean-"  Began Tom.

"I can check on her."  Offered Cas before disappearing.

"I'll comm down to dad."  Tom said, then he ran out the room.

Ruby sat there on the floor, holding Alex for what seemed like a long time.  She was too tired to even feel rage at that point.  For months, her family had been slowly eaten away at and there wasn't anything she could do about it.  Each day brought more visions, then each night brought panicked screams.  They were losing the fight.  

Since Lucifer had been freed they hadn't landed a single hit because there wasn't a single foe to fight.  The Archangel seemed to wear out his incompatible vessels in at most a day or so.  There had been over a hundred sightings in different vessels.  Every time the AFE had thought they found him, instead there'd be a charred corpse and he'd be on the other side of the world charming a new victim.  They were always a step behind because Lucifer by necessity was attacking on the run.

Sam teleported into the parlor next to her.  She noticed some smeared blood just below his nose as he knelt in front of her.  He checked Alex's eyes, which barely focused on him.  The boy's eyelids kept nearly closing, but he struggled to stay conscious.

"It's okay, mom & I are here."  Sam reassured Alex while patting his shoulder.  "You can fall asleep."

A few seconds later Alex's eyes shut, then Sam & Ruby looked at each other.  Sam cupped her face, caressing her cheek with his thumb.  She turned her head to kiss his palm before closing her eyes to stop herself from tearing up.

"We're at the end of the world.  All I can think about is how our family can manage to survive another week or day."  Ruby whispered, then shook her head.  "There used to be a difference, between surviving & living.  I don't know if we'll ever live again."

Sam leaned forward to kiss her forehead, then carefully picked up Alex and carried him to his bedroom.  On the walk to his son’s room, Sam saw Dylaniel watching quietly from his own bedroom’s doorway.  Sam offered his nephew a pitying smile, but the boy barely reacted before returning to what he’d been doing.  When Sam passed Dylaniel’s open bedroom door he saw that dozens of books had been taken from the library to be systematically worked through.

He didn’t linger to examine the books that Dylaniel had hoarded, instead Sam took Alex to his bedroom.  He tucked his son in bed, then scanned the room anxiously for possible dangers.  With one seizure under his belt, Sam worried there was a chance that another could follow.  Sam gently slid the mattress onto the floor so that there wasn't any risk of Alex hurting himself in a fall.  Then he looked around for anything that might detonate if accidentally hit with the First Light.  

While looking around the room, Sam spotted a pile of spell components & other materials on Alex’s desk.  For the last few weeks, Alex’s latest obsession had been the incorporeal creatures shades.  Alex had had a slight fear of the dark when he was younger and discovering that there were creatures made of shadows had struck a morbid chord with him.  Ruby had suggested researching shades to help demystify them.  Alex had gone above & beyond.  

Based on the contents of the desk, it looked like he was trying to create a trap to catch a shade.  A candle rested in the middle of an 8” wide aluminum cylinder.  The cylinder had been almost entirely carved away to just leave a few runes that appeared to be variants on a devil’s trap.  Sam could imagine the lit candle casting shadows of the runes on all the walls.  But with the candle unlit most of the shadows fell inside the trap’s mechanism itself.  Wanting to fix the alignment of the shadows, Sam touched the candle’s wick, igniting it with the First Light.  He stared at the flame sitting in the little rune covered cylinder for several seconds before sliding the candle & cylinder to be positioned on top of a drawing of the trap's runes.

When Sam got back to the parlor, he found a meeting of sorts underway.  Cas had not only brought back Kaylee, but Dean had returned home along with Hael & Gabriel.  Tom sat next to Kaylee, catching her up on what had happened while Dean & the angels were updating Ruby on the global tactical situation.  She had barely listened to any of Hael’s report from Eastern Europe before she held up her hand to silence everyone.  She’d had more than enough of Lucifer, away & at home.

"I can’t fucking take this anymore.  We need to find Lucifer and kill him."  Ruby said in frustration.  "He's torturing Sam and the kids.  This- all of this can't keep going."

"I wish I knew how to find him, but I don't."  Replied Gabriel.  "Luci's like the one guy in all existence more slippery than me.  He’s where I learned all my best tricks."

"Can we at least figure out his MO?"  Asked Ruby.

"Even if he wasn’t jumping all over the place and we could catch up to him, we’d still have to fight probably the most powerful being on earth."  Dean complained, painfully aware that he was on the short list of people qualified to kill Archangels.

"If we knew where he was going to be, do we need to actually fight him?  Is there a way we could trap him?"  Sam asked softly.  He didn’t want to get ahead of himself.

"I might have a way lock him down.”  Gabriel nodded at a thought.  “Think like a devil's trap or holy oil, but heavier duty."

"How're we supposed to get him in the trap though?"  Dean asked.  “I’m guess that he isn’t gonna bite at a block of cheese.”

"What if the vessel is already in the trap when he enters it?"  Sam avoided looking at Kaylee & Tom while broaching the subject of vessels, but he did notice Ruby’s eyebrow raise subtly at his question.

"He's not gonna stroll into a trap just because some schmuck says yes."  Gabriel answered with a knowing look at Sam.

"What if his true vessel says yes?"

"Sam, you can't be serious."  Dean said as he stood up from where he was leaning against the wall.

"He wouldn't go for it while you were in the trap.”  Gabriel shot down the idea.  “He'd just wait until you left the trap and then he'd jump you."  

"See, you shouldn't be thinking like that."  Dean looked around the room for support.

"Actually, in theory it's possible that vessels can fight their angels for control.”  Hael speculated.  “There's a chance you could say yes, then step into the trap."

“You’re talking about Zephon?”  Countered Cas.  “She was one of the lesser choirs and it was still a one in a million chance.  Lucifer would be inconceivably more difficult to overpower.”

“Luci’s an Archangel, but we’re also dealing with a more powerful vessel.”  Gabriel added.  “It’s not the worst idea I’ve heard.”

“Gabe, that’s not funny.”  Dean said hoping that the conversation would collapse under its own absurdity.

“I’m not joking.”  Gabriel glanced at his siblings before turning back to Dean.  “Luci's my brother.  I love him, but this has gone too far.  We have to stop him and we don’t have decades to do it this time around.  Neither of our families can take it.”

Lucifer was focusing his attacks on the pro-human & pro-Heaven angels, since he perceived them as the greatest threat.  The overall population of angels had been reduced because of the war in general, but now their death toll was rising much faster.  At last count the AFE only had around 2,000 angels left in their ranks and they were dying up to a dozen at a time with each hit.  Every week that passed made them weaker.  

Their army was suffering a death by a thousand cuts, but so were their families.  Each time an AFE angel died, they were mourned by their siblings.  Each time one of the nephilim was killed the hope for having some sort of a future backslid.  And each time Dean saw Sam, Kaylee, or Alex clutch their head from a vision he worried what sort of damage might come from it.  Minutes ago he’d watched Kaylee pass out from the same vision that had given Alex a seizure.  Everything was escalating and although he didn’t want to admit it, he was terrified of what would come next if they did nothing.

“We have to try something.”  When Sam saw that nobody was going to interrupt him with an objection he continued.  “If this is all we’ve got, then I’m in.”

"You're his true vessel.  He's not going to want to let you go and we don't have any other real options except to hope he backs out.”  Gabriel explained.  “If you say yes, that's it.  At the very best you're going to be benched indefinitely- and that's immortal indefinitely."

"Sammy..."  Dean didn’t know what to say.  He hated the idea of Sam sacrificing himself, but when it came down to it, he had nothing else to suggest and it wasn’t his call.

"You'd do the same if it was Michael tearing up down here."  Sam smiled weakly at his brother.

"I still don't like it."

"I don't like it and I'm the one that suggested it."

“Let’s not sign on the dotted line just yet.”  Ruby interjected.  “We’re gonna need a lot more than just some spitballing before we commit to such a terrible idea.”

* * *

 

11/28/2028

"The most powerful angel warding in the history of the universe and it's being used to keep one in."  Sam said as he kicked the iron bars of the cell as a prospective buyer might kick a car's tires.

They had stripped out most of the basement in order to convert it into a cell to hold Lucifer.  About two-thirds had been magically reinforced on every surface and the open side was blocked off with two rows of iron bars.  The two rows of bars were ten feet from each other, separated by a heavily warded buffer zone.  Beyond the warding in the buffer zone, the individual bars were engraved with enochian protection sigils, which were designed to be impervious to the First Light.  Each set of bars had a door with five locking mechanisms of magical & non-magical varieties.

The actual cell portion was empty.  They decided not to risk giving Lucifer anything from the beginning.  It wasn’t obvious what kind of shape the Archangel would be in or what he could do with even the most innocuous of objects.  Once they had a sense of their prisoner they could figure out whether it made sense to provide anything in the way of accommodations.  The conclusion had felt a little cruel towards Sam, until they all reminded themselves that Sam almost certainly wouldn’t be in control long enough to really utilize them.

"Yeah, well.  Once you meet Luci you'll appreciate all my hard work."  Said Gabriel as he painted wards onto the floor of the buffer zone in his own blood.

"That's reassuring."  Sam sighed.  "Are you sure it's okay for me to be seeing this?"

"Luci isn't dumb, he'll know exactly how this trap was made as soon as he sees it.  The trick is going to have to be that you can't unlock it from the inside.  Once you get inside, for you the work'll be done."

"Do I actually have to close the gates or just get in passed the warding?"  Sam asked as he swung the outer gate in order to test the hinges.

"Once you get inside the warding you'll be knocked on your ass.  Imagine being hit by a car that has all the physical characteristics of the planet Mercury.  It’ll be like that for at least a day or two- but it’ll be worse for him.”  Gabriel offered as reassurance while finishing the last ward.  “One of us will lock you in, but if not you should try to get the inner gate closed at least.  Luci will be weakened, but it's not a perfect cage until both gates are shut."

"So, one of us is going to have to be in reserve to get the gate?"  Asked Kaylee from her perch on the basement staircase.  “I guess we better go draw straws.”

They went upstairs and gathered their inner circle in order to finalize the plan.  Gabriel, Anael, Hael, & Rachel were representing the fallen angel contingent.  Kali was there incidentally as Gabriel’s partner, but primarily as one of the most powerful people in Asia, a region that was better fortified against angels.  Tamara, Bishop, Flo, & Kit were invited to help provide some warning to the AFE in addition to the other officers in attendance.  

Sam brought in Shola, Crowley, & Morrison as his key people from Hell.  None of the demons were thrilled by the plan, though they didn’t have a strong counterargument to the gamble.  Lucifer’s attention may have been turned to the angels, but they all knew that he would eventually turn his attention to Hell.

“So, best case scenario,”  Sam began.  “Kaylee takes over Hell with the full support of the Council and everyone goes on with their lives… but we’re not all here to talk about the best case scenario.”

“If Lucifer ends up calling the shots we need to be as ready as possible without having tipped our hand early.”  Continued Dean, eagerly trying to find comfort in the familiarity of a mission briefing.  “We’re all in vital positions within our respective structures.  Find people you trust with your lives and get them ready for a possible attack.  If this leaks and team Lucifer gets wind, he might pass on the invite until we aren’t ready or worse.  I know it’s going to be tempting to warn everyone, but we can’t risk it.”

“We don’t have enough of the global command here.  This is mutiny.”  Said Bishop, the only human with a military background there.

“It’s worse than just mutiny.”  Corrected Ruby.  “If this goes wrong there’ll be a lot of dead people.  Everyone needs to be prepared for that.  But if we don’t do anything, there will absolutely be a lot of dead people.”

There was a moment of silence while everyone considered the options.  Short of killing Sam, no one was actually capable of stopping him from saying yes.  Any of the others could refrain from participating in the scheme, but there was no real benefit to trying to sabotage it.  The most that revealing the plot would do would be to compromise Sam’s success at controlling Lucifer.  There wasn’t a good way to change the trajectory of events without significant consensus including Sam.  And beyond that, they were faced with a lethal status quo.

“We aren’t going to be able to warn officers in all our bases.”  Bishop cautioned.  “I don’t think we’ll be able to tip off any of the bases along-”

“Don’t.”  Sam interrupted.  “Don’t talk exact logistics around me.  Don’t let me know where any vulnerabilities or targets are.”

“We can divide up bases later.”  Anael suggested.

“Speaking of targets,”  Said Hael.  “Many of the nephilim are already in secure locations, but-”

“I know about the groups hiding outside Glasgow & Lages.”  Sam said as he closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.  His chest felt tight at the thought that in some ways he was already the enemy, a person that couldn’t be confided in.  As much as he tried to remember the amount of trust they were putting in him, it hurt to realize that he was lining himself up to commit a betrayal.  The fact that it was a planned betrayal hardly took away the sting.

“Don’t worry about them, we’ll move the kids.”  Offered Dean with a sad smile.

“You’re also going to be a prime target.”  Gabriel told Dean.  "It's hard to say what Luci’s gameplan is, but it’ll probably involve going after you.  If he thinks he can take Michael in a fight, he might try to serve you up to Michael just to try and kick his ass.  If he doesn't want to fight Michael, he still might risk handing you over as a peace offering.  If he wants to keep Michael out of play, then he'll try to destroy your soul.  We aren't gonna know until he's here."

"It sounds like I'm fucked no matter how you slice it?"  Dean rolled his eyes at yet another looming threat.

“Pretty much.”  The Archangel gave a little apologetic shrug.

"Dylaniel will also be in danger."  Added Cas.

"Yeah..."  Gabriel's face lost some of its liveliness.  "Luci's not going to spare him just because he's a kid."

"Dean & Dyl should go off the grid for sure."  Suggested Ruby.

"He'll probably be borderline homicidal toward Cas too."  Said Gabriel.  "Aside from the whole working to stop his return for years- Cas has helped thousands of angels fall for the exact opposite reason that he did.  That’s definitely going to put you on Luci’s shit list- and let’s not forget the whole being with a hum-”

“We get it, Gabe.”  Dean cut him off.  “The three of us will lay low.”

Dean crossed his arms in front of his chest and avoided everyone’s eyes.  He hated the idea of not being around to help his brother, but there wasn’t anything he could do.  His ace in the hole involved killing angels, but he wasn’t prepared to kill Sam.  Deep down he’d known that him staying out of the potential fight was the way it had to work out, yet he’d avoided facing that realization head on.  Now the reality of the situation was crushingly clear.  Sam & he were unstable elements when an Archangel was in the mix- there was no way around it.  Cas placed his hand on Dean’s shoulder in a silent gesture of support, which Dean leaned into.

“Not to intrude on the family moment,”  Crowley drew everyone’s attention to the demon filled corner of the room.  “but we need to discuss Hell’s preparations as well.  We can’t have Lucifer showing up at our gates wearing Sam.  It’ll look like an endorsement.”

“Finish sealing Hell, lock it all down.”  Sam instructed to the surprise of everyone there.

“We could-”  Morrison began, but Sam raised his hand to silence the Archdemon.

“Morrison, you know more about Hell’s defenses than I do.  Leave it that way.  As far as I’m concerned, lock the whole place down- destroy the Howling Gate to do it if you have to.  Do whatever you need to do to make Hell not worth the effort of entry.”

“You’re suggesting we cut off our people on Earth?”  Shola asked, shaken by the thought.

"If we don't, they won't have a plane to go back to."  Sam explained.

"But sealing the gates could cause panic or fracture our ranks on Earth."

"I'll stay on Earth."  Said Kaylee.  "I can rally our people topside.  I'll send what I can to help reinforce the gates on this end, but I don't know what we'll have to work with."

"We need to have a line of communication."  Ruby pointed out.

"We can discuss it confidentially."  Suggested Morrison.  "Actually, if there's nothing else that I'm needed for, I'd like to speak with some of the angels in private.  I need to start designing now if you still want to keep an eighteen hour deadline."

Sam gestured inviting Morrison to leave the room.  Anael, Rachel, & Heal followed him to participate in the Archdemon's research.  Bishop, Flo, & Tamara also left to discuss the plan for notifying various AFE bases.  

* * *

 

“Tom, I need you to do something for me that you’re not going to like.”  Tom's heart sank at Sam's words.  He already knew what his dad wanted from him.  “Stay out of harm’s way until this is done.”

“I’ve proven myself.  I can help-”

“I know how capable you are- I really do, but that’s not what this is about.  If things go wrong then we have another Archangel in play.  You’re my kid just as much as Kaylee & Alex, but you aren’t his vessel and he wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.”  Sam's mouth moved, but he struggled to speak at first.  “Please don’t let that happen... I couldn’t take it if I hurt you.”

“Okay.”  Tom exhaled the word before clearing his throat and continuing.  “I’ll go.”

“I’m sorry it has to be like this.”  Sam apologized.  Tom got up his chair and hugged his dad.

“We all are.”  Tom turned to Dean & Cas,  "Maybe I could go and help protect you three.”

“If Lucifer gets the chance he’s gonna hunt us.  You’d just be putting yourself into the line of fire further downstream.”  Dean warned.

“If you keep your head down, I doubt Luci would bother trying to find you.”  Offered Gabriel.

“Because I’m human,”  Tom’s eyes flicked to Dean.  “and I’m not a vessel.”

Ever since he was a kid, Tom had known that he was different than the rest of his family.  With the exception of his siblings, every immediate family member had been a different creature.  Dean & Bobby had been his human role models, but Dean was a vessel.  His dad, siblings, & Cas had powers that put them in another weight class, though Dean & his mom had proven that fighting smart could level the field.  In theory Dean had an incredible power by being able to wield blessed weapons, but he hadn’t really been in combat since learning how to use it.  

His mom was probably the biggest source of inspiration in his life.  She may have been a demon, but she wasn’t an Archdemon or anything.  She didn’t use telekinesis or any of the higher tier demonic powers.  She worked hard to hold her own in the company of giants.  If there was a chasm, she’d build a bridge.  She knew how to exploit an enemy’s weakness because she knew she couldn’t win the fair fight.

Now though, he was being singled out as the one not capable of surviving Lucifer yet not being dangerous enough to be hunted down & killed.  He knew his family loved him and were only doing this to protect him, but he was being asked to sit out of one of the most important events of their lives.  More than that, if things did turn sour his whole family could be killed while he did nothing.

"We'll get our chance."  Dean reassured Tom.  "Picking battles is half of winning them.  I promise this won't be the last brawl."

Tom nodded then sat down between Kit & Kaylee.  The kitsune wrapped his arm around Tom's neck in a half hug while Kaylee rested her head on Tom's shoulder.  Sandwiched by his two best friends, it was hard for him to maintain his soft scowl.

"He probably won't want to hurt Kay or Alex because he'll be trying to persevere as much of his bloodline as possible."  Gabriel continued working through the threat analysis.  "And he always liked me, so I doubt he'll take a real shot at me unless push comes to shove.  But everyone else is fair game- maybe not Ruby, since he knows you two can breed.  He'll try to keep his options open."

"Lovely."  Ruby groaned at being referred to as potential breeding stock.

"Maybe mom should stay in reserve to lock up?”  Suggested Alex from the doorway.  He hadn't been invited to the meeting, but instead had snuck away from watching Dylaniel & Hael's daughter.  “That’ll leave Gabe, Kay, & me free to fight.”

Alex was barely fourteen years old.  His combat training had been reduced since they'd moved to the bunker due to the lack of open spaces.  He occasionally had gotten to train outside with Tom, Jieshi, & Anael, but it wasn't fair to say that he was skilled with either a blade or gun.  The only good thing that could be said was that powers came naturally to him... but in the grand scheme of things it was hard to tell how much that counted for.

“You’re too young.  This is an Archangel-”  Sam started, but Alex interrupted him.

“I know, but I have powers and he doesn't want to instantly kill me.  I’m one of the only people that can fight him.  We might not have the luxury of me sitting this out.”

"He's giving you seizures-  what do you think is going to happen if you try to fight him?  You should hide out while this is happening."

"Maybe I'm not the first choice, but it'd be dumb to not have me available."  The adults all exchanged glances, but no one could argue with him as a last resort.

“He gets his stubbornness from you.”  Sam said to Ruby.

“He gets it from both of you.”  Dean corrected.

* * *

 

Ruby opened the door to their bedroom and found Sam kneeling beside the bed.  His hands were folded in front of him.  She saw his lips finish some whisper, then he turned to look at her.

"I thought you'd given up praying?"  Ruby asked as she walked over and sat down on the bed next to him.  He didn't bother to stand up, but instead took her hand.

"I had, but I figured..."  He rocked his head from side to side uncertainly.  "This is either the best or worst time to start it up again."

"Who does the devil even pray to these days?"

"Maybe God, probably no one... But asking for strength feels right- maybe I'm just asking myself."

"You're the strongest person I've ever known.”  She touched his chin, raising his face to look at hers.  “There's never any question, my money's always on you."

Ruby leaned down to kiss him.  He got up to meet her lips, then continued forward, to climb on top of her.  She laid back on the bed as she pulled him closer.  He waved their bedroom door closed before giving into the moment.

Sam started kissing down her neck when he breathed in her scent and it shook him.  It was such a silly detail, but he realized how comforting he found the smell of her flesh.  He stopped kissing her and pulled back a few inches to get a better look at her.  With only a few hours left alone together, he actually wasn't particularly interested in sex- he just wanted to appreciate her.  He wanted to hold her, embrace her, be with her.  

With a single delicate kiss on her forehead, Sam laid down and pulled her into his arms.  Ruby wriggle backward until they were spooning, Sam’s favorite position when they would sleep together.  He buried his nose in her hair and took a deep breath.  His hand rested over her beating heart, then drifted down to the scar where he’d stitched her up.  Her fingers traced his own, eventually settling on his silver not-quite-wedding-ring.

"I want to take you away- away from all this.  Just the two of us."  He whispered into the hair behind her ear.

"We could definitely run away.  Leave the war and the politics."  Ruby played along.  "Are you thinking of a beach somewhere or maybe the forest?"

"A beach or field,”  Sam explained.  “someplace away from civilization.  Where we can lay under the stars-"

"Will you read me poetry?"  Ruby grinned at the thought.

"Of course, you couldn't get me to shut up.  I’ve had centuries to brush up on my classic lit.”  When Ruby hummed with interest, he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, causing her to turn her head to look at him.  His fingers caressed her earlobe before he began.

“'Thou fair-hair'd angel of the evening,

Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light

Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown

Put on, and smile upon our evening bed.

Smile on our loves-"  Ruby silenced him with a kiss.  She rolled to face him and he held the back of her head as they kissed.  The kiss turned salty.  She pulled back, then wiped the tears from his cheeks.

"What if this is it?”  His voice cracked.  “We'll never have another night together."

"Sammy, don't think like that.  You've got to hold onto hope."

"My best case scenario is being..."  He didn't want to finish saying 'trapped in a cell with Lucifer in me for eternity', so he just pursed his lips.  "Worst case..."

"Don't think about the worst case."  

"If it changes me- makes me something I don't want to be..."  He tried to evade her eyes, but she held his cheeks so that his eyes were only inches from her own.

"I'm not gonna kill you if that's what you're asking."

"Ruby, I'm dangerous- even without Lucifer."

"I know exactly what you are."  She kissed the tip of his nose.  "You're the light in the darkness and I'm gonna find a way to save you."

"If anyone can, it's you."

* * *

 

12/29/2028

Dean hugged Sam tightly for what felt like a whole minute.  Neither of them wanted to admit it was goodbye, but the mood was unmistakable.  There was almost no chance of seeing each other again, just as brothers.  If they did meet again it would likely mean one or both of their deaths and they both knew it.

"I'm sorry-"  Dean struggled to speak through the tightness in his throat.

"Don't- It's not your fault."  Sam reassured his big brother.  "Don't carry that weight...  Take care of each other."

"You're gonna get through it, I know you will."  Dean clenched his eyes as a few tears escaped.  "I love you, Sammy."

"I love you too, Dean."

Dean let go of Sam, stood beside Cas, then took Dylaniel’s hand.  After a painful second, Dean nodded to Cas, and the three of them disappeared.

Tom stepped up to his dad and stared him in the eyes for a moment.  Sam looked him over, then smiled.  He touched one of the small pink bows that Tom wore in his hair.  It had been years since he’d seen Tom had wear anything that might be considered feminine.

“I figure if it's the end of the world, I might as well go out in style- my own way.”  Tom muttered sheepishly.  “Who am I trying to impress anymore anyway?”

“You impress me- you don’t even need to try.”  Sam said as he pulled Tom into a hug.  “I’m so proud of you.  I love you.  Don’t ever doubt that.”

“I love you too, dad.”

After Tom used a talisman to teleport away, the rest of the family went down into the basement.  Sam hugged his kids, kissed Ruby one last time, then stood next to the open gate leading to the buffer zone of the cell.  Gabriel stood within arm’s reach in case something went wrong.  Kaylee stood five feet away, ready to spring forward if need be.  Alex & Ruby stood further back, hoping to not be necessary.  Sam took a moment to collect himself and take his last breath of free air.

"Yes."

There was a flash of light that surprised even Gabriel.  When their eyes adjusted Sam was laying on the floor next to the gate.

"Quick!  G-"  Kaylee said, but everyone was knocked backward into the walls by a shock wave emanating from Sam.  Gabriel was able to sit upright despite wobbling slightly.  Kaylee turned her head from side to side, but she couldn't will herself to get up.  She spotted Alex & her mom both lying unconscious on the ground.  Blood trickled from Ruby's nose, tear ducts & ears.

Sam stood up and looked around the basement.  His eyes settled on the trap.  He nodded to himself then glanced at Gabriel with a small smile.  Shaking his head, Lucifer flexed his hand.  A five foot wide section of the outer bars tore free and dragged across the wards on the floor, scratching away the detailed pattern.  Lucifer was gone.

* * *

 

Kaylee rolled onto her side, then dragged herself to Alex.  He wasn't moving except for the slight rise & fall of his chest.  As usual, his eyes were solid black, so she couldn't tell how his pupils would react to light.  His right horn's tip had broken off when he was thrown into the basement wall.  She realized that his habit of wearing his horns had probably saved him from some greater injury.

Gabriel was kneeling next to Ruby.  The Archangel checked her vitals and looked her over thoughtfully.  It wasn't clear whether the lack of frantic action on Gabriel's part was comforting or terrifying.

"Are they gonna be okay?"  Kaylee asked as she lifted herself into a crawling position before experimenting with standing.

"I think so."  Gabriel said in a not entirely reassuring tone.  He glanced back at the broken trap.  "It'll take me at least a few hours to fix this- longer maybe."

"Hours?!  He's gone- doing..."  She didn't want to begin voicing all the unpleasant thoughts drifting into her head.  "What am I supposed to do for hours?"

"Go put out some fires if you can.  It shouldn't be hard to find 'em."  Said as he turned his attention back to the trap.

Kaylee ran to her room to grab some supplies, but she hesitated.  She wasn't sure what to take because she wasn't sure what to do first.  It had been easy to say that she'd stand up to Lucifer should the worst happen, but she'd been assuming that Gabriel & her mom would be on hand to help.  Despite what he might lack in command experience, Gabriel had thousands of years of nearly every other kind of experience.  Her mom was one of the most creative strategists she knew.  But both of them were out of commission.  Even Alex, the unexpected source of aid, wasn't available.

Lucifer was almost certainly causing trouble somewhere at that very moment.  Her dad was gone.  Dean, Cas, & Tom were off the board.  Her mom was unconscious.  Crowley was sealed off in Hell-

She grabbed the Archdemon's talisman, dropped it into a silver goblet, then ran for the cold storage case in the medical room.  After digging through the shelves, she found one of the IV bags of her own blood.  Dragging a knife along one edge, she poured the blood into the goblet.  Her hands warmed the goblet, raising the blood to around body temperature and hopefully tricking the spell into treating it as fresh.

"Crowley, please tell me you can hear me."

"I take it things didn't go well?"  She'd never been more grateful to heard the demon's voice, but she didn't have time for feelings like relief or happiness.

"Lucifer's in control.  The trap is out of commission until Gabe can fix it.  I don't know what's going on.  Is he trying anything on your end?"

"He hasn't pressed any of our gates yet."

She buried her face in her hands.  In some ways it was comforting to know Lucifer wasn't making an immediate play for Hell.  Lucifer probably had a different assessment of what assets were going to be powerful.  He was an angel, and not just any angel, he was something of an old fashioned one.  In some ways he might've been ahead of his time back when he rebelled, but he didn't have an appreciation for just how significant an impact demons, humans, & non-humans could make.

Unfortunately, since Lucifer wasn't attacking Hell, that meant that she still had to find him on Earth.  In the very near future or possibly at that very moment he was inflicting some sort damage on the world.  They didn't know what his plan was- they were assuming he had a plan and wasn't just going to rain carnage down upon them randomly.  He was supposed to be a smart guy who'd just spent a small eternity locked up and probably dwelling on all the things he'd like to do.  Maybe the details had to be amended to fit the reality of the world he'd reentered, but he'd had months to reassess the situation.

So the likely players were: Lucifer with a smattering of loyalists and the element of surprise.  The AFE, which would be moderately well positioned except for the fact that a significant amount of its leadership would not be expecting Lucifer to strike.  Heaven, which had its strongest forces fortified but was completely unprepared for Lucifer.  The neutral humans, who were so much more vulnerable both in lack of foresight & defenses.  Then there was them... more accurately her.

On occasion Kaylee had ruled in Hell, under her dad's watchful eye.  She had helped make policy decisions, but she'd never done anything like this.  Her dad was the one that everyone believed in.  He was the one who could deliver a speech or inspire loyalty.  There were demons on Earth, partially under her authority and also under command of the AFE- but the AFE was about to get ambushed.  That proud institution was about to get thrown into disarray.  People with strong wills and leadership skills would need to pull them together.  She didn't know how the demons could trust a nineteen year old to lead them, let alone have influence over anyone else.

"They aren't going to follow me."  Kaylee confessed her fears.

"You want to know how your dad got his following?  He stood up for Hell- and he killed a lot of people."  Kaylee rolled her eyes at Crowley's words.  "Chaos is just uncontained power waiting to be seized & manipulated.  Lucifer isn't going to hesitate to take it.  Go beat him to the lion's share."

After ending the call, she threw on her black leather long jacket with red accents in order to look the part of the leader of Hell.  With a few quick adjustments, she donned one of Dean's old angel blade hip holsters.  She manifested her horns, fangs, & claws, then teleported out of the bunker.

* * *

The latest demographic report was four days old, but there shouldn't have been any major changes. The neutral natives population consisted of 950 million humans, 3,000-30,000 non-human natives, & less than 1,000 other blips on the radar that that AFE couldn't identify.  The Heaven aligned forces consisted of over 250,000 Templar, less than 1,000 angels on Earth, & 7,000 angels in Heaven.   Lucifer’s followers consisted of 200 angels, 10,000-40,000 humans, 150,000-250,000 demons.  The AFE had 2,000 angels, 600,000 humans, 25,000 non-human natives… and about 900,000 Hell aligned demons on Earth.

Demons made up more than half of the AFE’s forces, but they weren’t well integrated throughout the ranks.  Despite a casual effort to include demons in command positions, they were underrepresented.  A significant part of the discrepancy was the fact that many humans & angels had a lingering distrust of demons.  For millennia demons had almost exclusively come to the other species’ attention because of their violence & treachery.  There was an idea that demons were vicious or uncivilized because of the nature of Hell.  The backlash over Sa'dah's death just 3 years earlier hadn't helped that perception.   As a result, they were often consolidated and assigned to remote locations rather than with the rest of the army’s population.

Kaylee knew that the majority of AFE demons were either clustered around specific bases or networked with those communities.  It sounded like most of Lucifer’s strategic knowledge would be coming from what Sam knew.  Luckily, Sam hadn’t been interested in the particulars of the AFE deployment plans.  He probably knew the major bases thanks to random dinner table conversations over the years and Lucifer had undoubtedly collected significant intel over the last few months.  But there the most inner circle details were likely to be a secret still.

Her first step had to be taking command of the AFE's demons on Earth.  They were an underappreciated resource, that in theory should have some loyalty to her.  After rallying the demons, she could reinforce the AFE and try to contain the damage Lucifer was doing.

She teleported into the center of the Linares base.  There were a few dozen demons casually going about their business.  Her arrival only caught the attention of the handful of demons closest to her.  Without wasting any time, she manifested her wings, then forced herself into the air with a burst of telekinesis.  By the second flap of her wings she had every demon’s attention.  She carefully settled herself on top of a van before addressing the crowd.

"I want every demon above the rank of captain or visdemon here, now!"  She ordered in Abyssal.  

About half of the demons blinked away and were replaced by even more higher ranking demons.  She recognized many of the new arrivals as being of high enough rank within their castes to have warranted admission to the Citadel.  A few of the demons watched with confused skepticism.

"A visit from the princess?  What're they playing at?"  Muttered a cruciare demon in the crowd.  

She could sense his disrespect and his comments spread the sentiment like a poison.  As much as she needed to ration her powers, she needed to command respect more.  Kaylee squeezed him, then raised his meatsuit into the air several feet.

"No longer princess- queen."  She said in as cool a tone as possible.  With a slight twist of her hand, she began crushing his broken soul.  She let him scream in agony for a few seconds before dropping him to the ground.  "I am here on behalf of the High Council and by my own will as Queen of the Abyss."

She waited a beat to see if anyone would object to her claim.  Small ripple of unease drifted through the crowd, but mostly she sensed concern- not doubt or anger.  She hoped that her people were smart enough to be realizing what extreme circumstances must have taken place.  The king of Hell was no more, and the queen was making an announcement in person on Earth.

"The Council became aware of a plot by Lucifer to attack Hell."  She lied.  It barely even registered on her conscience.  Both Hell & Earth needed her to have their loyalty.  And with the Council stacked with her allies she had no doubt they'd corroborate any story she pitched.  

"To protect our home, the gates have been sealed."  She could feel the level of fear in the audience rise at the thought of having their retreat cut off.  "We do not have a position to fall back to, because if we flee, Earth will fall... Then Hell.  This is how vital we are to not just the survival of our people, but all peoples on Earth.  This army of Hell is the largest military force on Earth.  For years we have served below humans & angels because we have let non-Abyssal continue to define us.

What they don't understand is that we're a people unlike any other.  Each & every one of you has fought to become the person you are today.  In Hell, you begin with nothing but pain and you have to earn your dignity, your position, your friends, your families.  No matter what the outsiders might say about us, we've forged ourselves in the harshest fires.  Outsiders may question our nobility or morality, but every honorable deed you've ever done has been a testament to your tenacity.  I'm proud to be Abyssal, to be demon, because we are the people of resilience.

We will not wait in Hell for our destruction.  We will not let Earth die.  We are going to save the humans, and the angels, and every other species on Earth- or we die proving that demons are a force to be reckoned with.”

Cheers spread through the crowd as they blinked their eyes black.  She could feel their unease transform into pride.  The scene took her aback for a moment.  Her dad had been incredibly popular with his people, but he’d never been able to turn his eyes black.  It was such a tiny gesture, yet looking out at the sea of now hundreds of demonic black eyes just like her own… she had a profound appreciation for her people.  They believed in her because they wanted to believe in themselves.  They gave her their faith, that power- now she had to use it.

"My father sacrificed himself in an attempt to contain Lucifer.  He has given us a target- a finite enemy.  As I speak attempts are being made to capture Lucifer.  Until he is contained or... kill,"  She didn't want to encourage them to kill Lucifer, but she didn't want everyone to be pulling their punches either.  Mundane demons almost certainly wouldn't be lethal against an Archangel even under the most favorable conditions... and some risks were going to be necessary.  "Hell is in danger.  Earth is in danger.  We need our most powerful demons guarding the gates- 1,000 per gate."

"1,000?"  Asked a maji in the crowd.  

On Earth, the gates ranged in size from a cupboard door to a two car garage door.  They were often guarded by at most fifty demons, but even that was a rare occurrence.  She was assigning more demons than had ever guarded all of the gates at once to each individual gate.  Beyond wanting a sufficient garrison for each potential target, she wanted to be clear about how seriously she was taking their enemy & how important it was to hold the gates.

"If Lucifer sends angels, we'll get chewed through twenty to one at best.  We're facing an enemy with fewer, stronger individual units.  We have to win on our numbers.  If it takes burying the gates in our corpses, that's what we're doing.  We cannot allow a breach."

Several demons whispered, but she was pleased to hear them discussing who to send to protect the gates.  There were nods of approval & understanding.  The general mood that radiated from the crowd was determination & righteous anger.

"The rest of us are going to defend various strategic locations or comprise companies for assaults.  Of those not guarding gates, I want 90% of them reinforcing the AFE bases and the highest population human territories-". There was a murmur of confusion.  "We need the humans, even the neutral ones.  They might not think they need us, but in their time of weakness they will and we have to be ready to give them aid.  Show them just how wrong they were to doubt our worth.  

The remaining 10% will be split into companies of a hundred.  Get them ready to run action items-"

"Ma'am, what action items?"  Asked a torquean visdemon.

"We're going to hit Lucifer & his side everywhere they turn.  No matter where they go, we will move to flank them and apply pressure.  The majority of our troops will be the anvil and the 10% the hammer.  By the time you get the companies organized I promise we'll have quite the list of places to strike.  Lucifer is already hard at work, we're playing catchup."

* * *

There were only about thirty people on the main street of the AFE's Wenatchee base.  Nearly half of the bases had reinforced their security as part of some sort of surprise drill earlier in the day.  Among bases running the drill, high value targets were moved into hiding and the warding was doubled.  It had raised a few red flags among even the bases not participating.  So despite the fact that their base wasn't having a drill, the nerve wrecked lieutenant in charge of Wenatchee’s base-wide announcements was primed to sound the alarm the moment Lucifer touched down.

Lucifer didn't mind having his arrival announced, it was more efficient than him extending an invitation himself.  He had a lot to do and didn't want to be bothered with knocking down every door.  Those who dared to oppose him would eventually meet him on the battlefield, weapons drawn.  Those who wished to aid him would come too- he was counting on it.

Nearly all the bystanders were humans with a few angels & demons in the mix.  He telekinetically crushed the humans' throats & the demons' clouds.  He waited a moment to see how his siblings would react.  To his disappointment the three angels charged him, blades drawn.  They were dead in a flash of the First Light before they could reach melee range.

Rather than merely waiting in the open for more creatures to come to him, Lucifer decided to visit the headquarters.  As much as he was planning to kill all the commanders of the AFE, Marcus Barbosa was at the top of his list.  The human wasn't a threat, he was a subject of loathing.  Sam had hated the man for over a decade and Lucifer hoped that providing a little vengeance would do something to quiet his vessel.

He was vaguely aware that in an emergency most of the bases' nerve centers would lockdown & be protected magical.  Two years earlier, Dean & Ruby had discussed the practicality of different protection spells while making dinner.  Ruby had been forced to explain the theory in such simple terms that it had caught Sam's attention for several minutes.  Lucifer smiled as he started looking for the smaller unmarked building that should contain the source of all channeled spells on the base.  

After a minute of searching and occasionally killing enemies, Kaylee appeared in front of him.  She drew her angel blades and took up a fighting stance.  At first glance it might've appeared that she was committed to defending the base, but he had his doubts.  Sam could read Kaylee's expression & body language better than anyone- or at least that was true as of an hour ago.  Sam could see her hesitation, so Lucifer could see it too.

"I don't want to fight you, but I will if you make me."  Kaylee spoke with an air of authority that Lucifer appreciated.

"I'm not going to make you do anything." He replied.  "You're free to walk away or join me- if you insist on trying to stop me... Well, I'll be disappointed."

Lucifer took another step forward causing Kaylee to unconsciously start to step backward, but she stopped herself.  She raised her offhand to him, preparing to defend herself.  He smiled at her.

"I like your conviction.  Loyalty is an admirable quality, even when it is misplaced."  He continued to walk forward while watching her with interest.

She tried to stop him with telekinesis.  When he shrugged at her, she leaned in to force more energy into the push.  He visibly fought against some resistance as he raised his hand.  Lucifer made a flicking gesture, throwing Kaylee backward into the side of a building.  At the last moment he stopped her head from making contact with the concrete wall, but he didn't bother preventing any other injuries.  Her right foot connected with the ground before the wall, breaking her ankle & knee.  The impact knocked the blade from her hand and it rolled out of reach.

Lucifer strolled over to stand in front of Kaylee, then stared down at her.  She held her palms up to him, but the light that came from them didn't hurt him.  He knelt down to be closer to eye level with her.  She tried to blink away, but he shook his head subtly at her.

"I gave you those powers.  You may be more than the rest of the vermin, but a vessel is just a shadow of their angel.  Trying to fight me isn't going to work out well for you."  Lucifer placed his finger to his chin thoughtfully before continuing.  "I could show you how to harness your powers even more."

"Fuck you."  Her eyes flickered to the dropped angel blade, but she knew that he could stop her from grabbing it with almost no effort.  He blatantly looked at the blade, then smiled anew at her.

"I understand why you might not appreciate my offer right now, but the invitation stands."  Lucifer explained.  He collected the angel blade and looked it over thoughtfully.  "Tagas, she didn't fall with me, but it was hard not to be fond of her."

One moment Lucifer was holding the blade, the next it was gone.  She'd seen Gabriel pull some magical sleight of hand before, but it was a display of power that most angels couldn't pull off.  Yet Lucifer hardly seemed to realize he'd done anything impressive.  Instead he began examining the buildings around the intersection and his eyes settled on the small brick building diagonally across from where Kaylee was sitting.  

With his back turned, she struggled to get up, but her right leg was immobilized from the breaks.  She watched him study the building for a moment before she thought to turn her eyes black.  With her enhanced sight, she could see hundreds of tiny tendrils of spells radiating outward from inside the building.

"Magic is such a curious thing."  Lucifer said almost to himself.

He walked up to the brick wall, then placed his hand on the side of the building.  The First Light burnt through its walls and ignited every flammable object in its immediate area.  Screams emanated from the building, but they quickly faded and were replaced by the smell of charred flesh.  When he was done, the channeled spells were broken, but he didn’t proceed toward the headquarters as she’d expected.  He hesitated, then looked toward the sky, observing something that she couldn’t understand.  It was like he was waited for something.

She was about to try engaging him in conversation again when twenty angels teleported into the street.  None of them were familiar to her.  If she hadn't been injured she might've taken some initiative, but she just quietly watched.  For all she knew Lucifer would back the angels over her if she tried anything.  Kaylee tried to make herself as innocuous as possible.

"Hello, Zachariah."

"Lucifer."  Nodded an angel in the middle of the group.  "I'm here to negotiate a truce between you & Heaven."

"A truce?"  Lucifer huffed a laugh.

"We've been at war too long.  You should come home."  Zachariah's entire demeanor reminded Kaylee of a Crossroads demon, but that might be an insult to Crossroads demons.  Kaylee expected that as the apparent leader of the angels, Zachariah probably wasn’t dumb enough for his smile to be sincere.

"What home?  You mean the shrine to our cruel father?  Or the false paradise where we enslave ourselves to human cattle?"  Lucifer waved his hands at their meager surroundings.  "This may not be home, but I would rather fight in the filth than submit- especially to a sniveling viper like you."

"Cut the melodrama."  Zachariah's tone soured.  "You may be the First Light, but you're still just an angel.  You don’t have the army you had last time.  You’re one Archangel and a smattering of fallen.  We have-"

“Raphael, who has never beaten me in a fight even when I was going easy on him?  Or Michael, who has failed for decades to take his vessel and is too cowardly to come to this plane?  Or your army?  Well, what’s left of it after Michael and the rest of upper crust allowed our brothers & sisters to kill each other.”  Kaylee wasn’t sure that she’d ever heard so much anger comes from her dad’s mouth.

“You’re one to talk-”

“I fought for our freedom and our dignity!  You fight for our enslavement and they,”  Lucifer gestured at the base.  “fight for our disgrace.”

“We fight to keep our family together.”  Zachariah countered.

“By slowly bleeding it to death?  If you think peace can come from anything other than swift & brutal action, then you’re a fool.  And I have too much to do to waste time suffering fools.”  For a moment she expected Lucifer to disappear, but he took a step toward Zachariah.

“You may be an Archangel, but you’re outnumbered twenty to one.”  Zachariah pointed out at Lucifer's hostile gesture.  

“You’re right that I am an Archangel.  I am more powerful than any being on this plane.  I am the most experienced field commander in the history of Heaven.  I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to raise our people from this plight.  I am many things.”  Lucifer smiled again in a move that made Kaylee shiver.  He walked closer to the group of angels and briefly assessed them.  “But I would bet my life that one thing I am not, is outnumbered twenty to one.”

Zachariah's brow furrowed at the statement.  He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a ray of light.  One of the lesser angels pulled his blade from Zachariah's back as the body fell to the ground.  

Kaylee watched as the nineteen angels broke into a fairly evenly matched fight.  With all the movement, she couldn't quite count the sides or knew exactly which angel had what alignment.  Bodies were thrown telekinetically and blinking for surprise strikes.  All the while Lucifer watched with professional interest, almost evaluating the other angels' performances.

One of the lesser angels noticed her sitting on the ground.  He drew his blade and charged at her.  She held her hands up to try blasting him with the First Light, but she winched with doubt as to whether she would even be able to summon it.  She recoiled backward, hitting the wall.  

Suddenly, the wall was gone and she fell onto dew covered grass.  For a moment all she saw was the clear blue sky before she sat up to look around.  She was in a field about two miles from the edge of the base.  In the distance she could see the smoke rising from the carnage.  

She didn't understand how she had gotten there.  Her powers had been exhausted or outright blocked by Lucifer and she hadn't even had the presence of mind to try blinking away.  It didn't make sense... until she noticed that the pain in her leg was gone.  An angel had healed her, then transported her away from the fight.  

Kaylee had her suspicions as to her mysterious savior, but she pushed the unpleasant thought from her mind.  At that moment she had to focus on saving as many people in the base as possible.  When she stood up to return to the fight, an explosion of white light engulfed the entire base.

* * *

“Anael, Bishop & Tamara reported in that they’ve got demon reinforcements helping them hold most of the northeastern quadrant of North America.  Our Pacific bases are silent, but I think that might be part of their lockdown- Finch was updating their systems last month and I hadn’t looked over those reports.”  Ruby updated Kaylee & Gabriel on her communications with the other AFE officers.  “South America could use some more help, but who couldn’t.  Eastern Europe is taking a beating.”

“Any word from Hael?”  Asked Alex, but Ruby shook her head.

“Oh yeah, Gabe, Kali wanted me to tell you that she feels ‘a terrible & beautiful change’ whatever that means.  She seemed strangely happy.”  Ruby relayed the message, a little confused by its contents.

“That’s my girl, always something interesting-”  Gabriel looked up from his repairwork on the trap, then added.  “Not that our situation isn’t interesting.”

"You want interesting… I've got 870,000 demons doing a modified anvil & hammer maneuver."  Kaylee sighed as she began explaining her contribution to the war effort.   "The modifications are that the anvils are demon-reinforced bases & cities.  The hammers are strike teams that will pursue Lucifer's forces wherever we catch wind of them showing up.  Orders are we don't ease up for a moment.  If they defeat us we just turn around and hit them again.  They're stronger, but we have the numbers.  In theory we could win on that strategy, except-"

"Except they have the heaviest hitter around."  Offered Gabriel.

"I can't beat him in a fight, there's no way."  Kaylee rubbed the back of her neck as she leaned against the basement wall.  "Even with powers he can run circles around me and not break a sweat."

She'd returned to the bunker to briefly check on her mom & brother as well as talk strategy with Gabriel.  Alex & Ruby were both awake when she’d arrived, though Ruby hunched slightly.  Kaylee couldn't tell if it was from pain or fatigue and her mom wasn't likely to volunteer that sort of information.  Gabriel had managed to get most of the repairs done, but he continued to work as the four of them spoke.

It was possible that Lucifer could return to the bunker- he knew exactly where it was, but it seemed unlikely for him to risk getting close to the trap for no real benefit.  Even if he did come back, they were hunting him in theory.  Though based on Kaylee's account of the encounter it didn't really feel like Lucifer was prey.

"He hurt you?"  Ruby didn't need to ask, they all had expected Lucifer to potentially use violence to resist them.  Yet, even having been somewhat prepared for it, the reality of the situation made her stomach sink.

"Yeah, but he healed me, saved my life."  Kaylee stared at nothing beyond the concrete floor.  "He didn't have to."

Kaylee was the only one close to Sam who had tried to confront Lucifer.  The thing she fought may have had her dad's eyes, but they didn't carry the same warmth that they had always held for her.  When he picked up her dropped angel blade she worried that he'd kill her.  That the last thing she'd ever see would be her dad's face, the real man trapped or dead somewhere inside.  

But Lucifer didn't kill her- he saved her, even fully healing her.  Even if he'd wanted to keep her alive as a fallback plan, he could've left her leg broken.  He could've kept her as a prisoner of war.  Maybe there wasn't any point in locking her up- where would she flee to?  Then again he had to know that she'd keep working against him.  Did he really think so little of her as to let her roam free or maybe there was something else?  She couldn't help but wonder if maybe some part of her dad was still alive in the mix.  

"Kaylee?"  She didn't look up at her mom's voice.  Ruby stood up from her seat on the stairs and hugged her daughter.  "Starlight, he's not your dad anymore.  You know that, right?"

Kaylee nodded.  She didn't know if that was a lie.

"How are we going to get him in the trap once it's repaired?"  Alex asked trying to break some of the emotional tension.  "Is it even possible to knock him out or do we have to get him here while he's awake?"

"It's nearly impossible for us to short notice lay a whammy big enough to knock him out."  Explained Gabriel.  "Our best bet is maybe we could temporarily trap him with holy oil and then we can take our time knocking him out for transport."

"You think he'd really fall for holy oil?"  Ruby raised an eyebrow at the idea of using such a cheap trick.

"Maybe not, but unless you've got a better idea..."  He gave everyone a moment to contribute any suggestions before continuing.  "The real question is how do we know where he's going to be standing?"

"He'll talk to me."  Offered Kaylee.  "He wanted to recruit me.  If I talk to him... I think I could lure him."

Ruby crossed her arms in front of her chest, but didn't say anything.

"Well, finding him shouldn't be too hard."  Added Alex hopefully.  "If we blink into the periphery, then we could try laying the oil ring down before he turns the corner or whatever."

"I don't think we should be sneaking up on him exactly.  He blew up the whole fucking base in Wenatchee.  If he doesn't know we're nearby he could accidentally fry us."  Kaylee pointed out with an anxious tilt of her head.  "I could show up next to him, then retreat toward the oil ring?"

“Do you think retreating’ll be an option?”  Ruby asked as her lips thinned.

“We could be breadcrumbs.”  Alex suggested, but his metaphor was lost on the other three.  “Kaylee pops in to lure him part of the way, then I’ll pop in a little further down the road to get him the rest of the way.  Make a trail, like breadcrumbs.”

“I don’t like it.”  Ruby said quietly, caught between using her kids as bait & practical resignation.

“I don’t think he wants to kill us.”  Kaylee attempted to reassure her mom.

“Yeah, I don’t think he wants to kill you two either.”  Ruby only partially explained.  “I don’t have to like the plan when it’s the only plan we've got-  But if things go bad, you two leave immediately.”

“Okay.”  Kaylee answered and Alex nodded solemnly.

“Gabe,”  Ruby turned her attention back to their resident angel.  “how much can we do to Lucifer without seriously damaging Sam?”

“Inhabited vessels are tough.”  Gabriel looked up from his work on the warding.  “For most vessels it’s gonna take killing the brain for at least 10 minutes, but for an Archangel’s vessel… I just don’t know.  Luci’s old vessel was alive when it went into the cage.”

"I don't suppose the answer is going to be something as simple as quartering him?"

"Good luck getting close enough to him with a sword, let alone being able to use it."  Gabriel replied.  "Remember he's got all his experience plus Sam's, he’s not gonna be easy to touch."

* * *

Lucifer teleported into the Grand Junction base.  Dean had once tried to convince Sam to visit him at that base because of its proximity to the snowy slopes of Aspen.  Sam had declined, he hadn't been able to picture himself snowboarding.  Dean had been stuck there for months trying to secure the base from the surprisingly large number of human territories along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains.  He'd joked that if it wasn't for the skiing, he'd have let the humans take it.

After personally wiping the ten largest AFE bases off the face of the Earth, Lucifer wanted to make some progress against the humans.  The land east of the Grand Junction base wasn't as densely populated as a metropolis like New York City or Hong Kong, but there were significant clusters of human communities over a large area- exactly the kind of place he was looking for.

Lucifer was met with resistance in the form of several hundred humans, roughly a thousand demons, & a few dozen angels.  He wasn't surprised.  That seemed to be about the normal opposition for an AFE base.  

He was only grossly outnumbered for a few seconds.  A few hundred of his demon supporters & twenty of his siblings joined him for the fight.  While his underlings were getting down to work, Lucifer signaled for Samhain to join him.

* * *

Kaylee, Alex, & Ruby, stopped by the improvised command center established at a bottleneck in the base’s streets.  Half a dozen commanders were directing subordinates toward the main fight, which was taking place three blocks to the east.

"What's the situation?"  Ruby & Kaylee asked at the same time.  They exchanged a look, then Ruby took half a step back.

"He's getting ready to do something.”  Answered one of the officers.  “He has an Archdemon with him.  We're not sure what's happening, but it has to be big."

"Is he pressing for the southwest quadrant at all?"  Asked an officer who had just arrived from a side street.  Blood dripped from a cut on her forehead, but she hardly seemed to notice.  Some concern was riveting her attention.

"He seems focused on the east.”  Observed the first officer after checking a map.

“What's in the southwest?"  Kaylee was imagining nukes or something equally horrific.

"We converted some weapons caches into a detainment center... for fallen angels."  Confessed the injured woman.

"You have a prison full of angels do there?  How many?"  Kaylee wondered if nukes might’ve been better.

"212."

Kaylee looked around at the battlefield.  Buildings laid in ruin, hundreds of bodies in the streets.  The place was destined for destruction, this wasn’t the kind of treatment for a place that was meant to be captured.

"Does he even know that they're there?  He doesn’t know they’re there."  Kaylee mused.  "We have to let them out.  He's been destroying bases and they're trapped in the one he's hitting."

"They might side with him."  Suggested one of the officers.  "We don't know their loyalty."

"Are you fucking serious?  We're not leaving them trapped."  Kaylee restated with determination, then she switched arguments. "That's 10% of our angels- maybe even a whole choir.  We are not going to let them die to protect against a few bad apples."

“We can’t just-”  Objected the injured officer, but she was cut off.

"Fuck this.  I'll get the prisoners.”  Alex told his mom & Kaylee, while signaling for ten demons to follow him. “You two figure out this oil thing before he blows the place up."  

Alex found the prison in no time thanks to the painfully obvious guards.  He had four demons subdue the guards, as the rest of his party ran inside.  The facility was a large underground cargo bay that had been retrofitted with angel proof cells.  Each cell contained roughly ten angels.  He hurried down the main aisle assessing the situation, and drawing the attention of all the prisoners.

"What by the graces?"  One of the prisoners asked, seeing the group of demons.

"We're getting you out of here."  Alex explained.

"What's going on?"  Asked one of the senior angels.

"Lucifer has a vessel."  Alex spoke while looking over the locking mechanisms on the cells.  "He's killed fifteen of the AFE's senior commanders & he's going after bases.  He's gonna destroy this base."  

The angels started amassing near the gates to their cells in alarm.  Each angel's wrists were bound in warded handcuffs and the more powerful angels had their handcuffs tethered to an anchor point in the centers of the cells.  The lesser angels began working together trying to break the chains binding the ones to the cells' floor.

"As soon as the gates are open get their chains!"  Alex instructed the demons.

"You're just freeing us... with Lucifer right outside?"  Asked one of the angels, who watched the teenager in confusion.  "Aren't you worried we'll join him?"

"If you can live with that kind of blood on your hands that's on you.  But I'm not living with your blood on mine."  Alex clasped one of the locks, melting it with the First Light.  "If you want to prove your loyalty, now’s the time. "

* * *

Ruby & Kaylee both fought off the urge to go after Alex.  They were worried about him, but they had a job to do and time was running out.  At any moment Lucifer could light the match on the entire base.  They needed to get his attention, to let him know there was something in the base he didn’t want to destroy.  Kaylee would act as the lure by herself as best she could while Ruby setup the holy oil trap.  With some luck Alex would be back in time to help.

Kaylee blinked into the same plaza that Lucifer was in.  She was followed by a handful of higher ranking demons & two angels.  It was a bizarre eye in the storm, fighting all around them, but no one had penetrated Lucifer’s immediate area.  He was letting her be there and based on his casual demeanor he probably didn’t care that she brought along some support.  He had his own support.

At Lucifer's side was Samhain and a few angels.  Samhain was backed up by about ten demons from his own caste, the wæcnan.  While Lilith or Alastair had been the big names of the rebel Archdemons, Samhain had always been the individual variable that worried her dad & Crowley the most.  He could summon creatures to his side, specifically the undead and beings created from corruption.  Lilith may have been the zealotry of evil.  Alastair may have been to cruelty of evil.  But Samhain was the self-perpetuation of evil.

She hesitated.  The original plan had been to lure Lucifer backward over the holy oil circle, but he was clearly up to something significant if Samhain was there.  Lucifer turned his head toward Samhain without taking his eyes off of Kaylee.  He said something, which earned a nod from the Archdemon.  

“Samhain’s the target.”  Kaylee instructed her support, who charged and teleported forward.  The angels protecting Lucifer moved intercept the attack, while Samhain relayed some direction to his underlings.  During the flurry of new action, Lucifer didn’t bother looking around at the fighting, he was watching her.

Kaylee tried to blink to Samhain, but she was knocked out of the teleport only five feet ahead of where she’d started.  Lucifer shook his head at her.  She tried to run forward, but her threw her backward.  After rolling across the ground, scraping up her arms & back on the asphalt, she looked up at her surroundings.  He’d knocked her closer to the alley where Ruby had laid down the ring of holy oil.  He’d chosen her priority for her.  She got to her feet and started backing toward the trap as he followed her.

“I'm not sure how to feel about your stubbornness."  Lucifer commented.  "It could be an asset if you put more forethought into your actions."

"You're giving me shit on strategy?"  Kaylee nearly tripped on a curb, but caught herself and started hobbling down the alley.  "You're the one with the head start and all we can do is react."

"Please, we both know that you have some sort of plan.  You aren't a fool and the situation isn't dire enough to warrant you simply trying to fight me directly again.  The question is whether you've thought your plan through enough."  Lucifer said as he stepped into the ring of holy oil.  "Are you a decoy?"

Kaylee flicked her wrist, sparking the holy oil with the First Light.  The ring of flames surrounded Lucifer causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"I'm the bait."

"Not a bad thought, but like I was saying it's not the most sound plan."  Lucifer didn't seem remotely concerned about his predicament.  "I have dozens of pawns within shouting distance who would happily lay down upon the fire for me, but I don't even need to waste their lives."

Kaylee's chest tightened at the realization that he was about to bust the trap somehow.  She looked around for backup, but she’d cornered herself.  He waved his hands and the flames withered before extinguishing.

"Lit by the First Light, taken away by it too."  He took a step toward her and she tried to blink away, but he stopped her.  "You'd know that if you'd take my instruction."

"Stay back."  Kaylee said while raising her hands, unsure of exactly how to fight him.

“No, because then you won’t learn a lesson.”  Lucifer walked toward her while lifting his hand to do some sort of attack, but he abruptly stopped.  He fought against some confinement, then looked around for what was causing it.  

At the entrance to the alleyway Alex was reaching out with his hands, struggling to contain the Archangel.  His body was shaking and blood trickled from his nose.  When Lucifer turned to face him, Alex fell to his knees, but he didn’t let go of his hold.  

Sensing her opportunity, Kaylee struck outward in a blast of telekinesis, cracking the walls of both three story building on either side of her.  She pulled the crumbling walls inward at herself & Lucifer, before blinking away a moment before impact.  

* * *

Ruby laid down the circle of holy oil in the alley, then teleported to the opposite side of the plaza.  They knew that there was a reasonable chance that her presence would pique Lucifer’s interest, possibly to the point of alerting him that something was amiss.  She was generally thought to be fighting out of her weight class and Sam knew her well enough to realize that was a red flag.  Hopefully, she’d just be another random demon on the radar until she needed to strike.  

With Alex going to free the angels, Kaylee was on her own acting as the lure.  Ruby watched as her daughter was thrown to the ground.  She thought about coming forward, but Kaylee got up and kept working her way back to the alley.  It was taking all of her willpower not to run after them, but she had to follow up at a safe distance, then she could blink in closer to provide extra support.

As emotionally difficult as the plan was, the steps were easy… on paper.  In reality, this was all happening in the middle of a battle.  She had to dodge an attack by one of Lucifer’s angels, somersaulting out of the way as two of friendly demons tackled him to the ground.  

Three of the wæcnan began summoning ghosts, which added an extra level of chaos to the plaza.  One ghost clawed at her left leg, not actually shredding the flesh, but she could feel it trying to fight for her meatsuit.  It tripped her, then started creeping toward her heart.  She tried to blink, but only made it a few feet when she realized it was still clinging to her.  She rolled on the ground trying to shake it, searching with her hands for a piece of iron rebar in the rubble around her- something to get the damn thing off of her.

An angel blade sliced through the ghost just as its fingers started pressing into her breastplate.  When the ghost disappeared, she looked up to see an angel with a long scar across her neck offering her a hand up.  Ruby noted the broken handcuffs that her rescuer wore, then looked around.  Dozens of angels were pouring into the plaza from one end while a horde of ghosts approached from the other.

Beyond the newly arrived angels, she could see Alex on his knees at the opening to the alley.  The buildings on both sides of the alley began collapsing onto where the trap had been.  She scrambled toward her children in a panic, but saw Kaylee teleport out of the way of the debris.  Kaylee was on her hands & knees beside Alex.  For a moment it almost seemed that they were up one, then there was a blast.

Kaylee & Alex flew across the street along with several tons of bricks, concrete, & steel beams.  Alex managed to deflect a particularly large piece of a wall from crushing Kaylee, but a support beam pinned him to the ground, crushing his lower abdomen.  Kaylee tried to use her telekinesis to push it off of him, but she was mostly tapped out.  When several of the freed angels hurried to help Alex, they were dragged toward where the alleyway had been, then were incinerated with the First Light.  

Lucifer stepped out from the crater he’d made in the rumble.  He’d healed himself, but hadn’t bothered to repair his clothing.  Several bloody holes hinted at where the rebar had impaled him five times in the chest.  Dust fell from him as he started walking toward Kaylee & Alex.  

“If you two think that I’m-”  He began scolding his young vessels.

“Hey, dickbag.”  Ruby yelled at him as she ran into his view.

Despite his anger at Kaylee dropping two buildings on him, his temper cooled somewhat.  Lucifer even smiled at Ruby.  He hadn’t expected to see her, and she was relatively unharmed aside from a cut on her hand.  She moved to stand between him and his vessels.  He appreciated her attempt to protect them, though he hadn’t been planning to kill them.  

She weakly raised an angel blade at him, but he easily knocked it from her hand with telekinesis.  He held her in place while he closed the distance to stand right in front of her.  When she tried to punch him, he just caught her fist.

"Such a strange creature you are.”  He took a moment to marvel at her, which caused her body to tense.  “I should thank you.  You've saved this vessel from death countless times, preserved my line, and given me such powerful vessels."

"There’s no giving.  I don't care who you are, they don't belong to you.”  She growled at him.  “They're my kids and I'm not going to let some arrogant bast-"

He hit her across the face, breaking her nose and causing a tooth to fly free.  With some effort she looked back him. His hand was raised to strike her again, but he hesitated.  For a split second his eyes soften ever so slightly, flickering across her blood covered nose & mouth, then he caught himself.

She took the opportunity to spray a mouthful of blood into his face.  He let go of her and started wiping the blood from his face.  She staggered a few feet out of his immediate reach before stand up with conviction.

"Vorare."  Ruby snarled the activation word of her spell as she held her cut palm toward him.  Her blood that covered Lucifer's face & hands began corroding away at his flesh.  He stumbled backward while trying to wipe the acid-like blood off, but it only ended up spreading it more.  Within moments it had eaten through his skin and made contact with his veins, spreading the spell into his circulatory system.  

Regardless of the risks, she had to turn away.  She couldn’t watch that happen to Sam’s body.  In front of her she saw several angels pulling her children from the wreckage and begin healing them.  On either side, was a city consumed by an increasing surge of ghosts, fueled by the battle itself.  When she looked back Lucifer was gone- he had the right idea.

* * *

After overseeing the AFE’s retreat from Grand Junction, Ruby returned to the bunker with her kids to regroup.  She decided to stop by her bedroom to change her blood spotted clothes.  She’d seen too much blood that day.  As she was slipping on her new shirt she saw a book laying on the floor.  She picked it up, then looked at the shelf it had fallen from.  The books had tipped over diagonally in the shelf.  That didn't make sense, using bookends was one of the manifestations of Sam's tidy nature.  One or more books had been removed.

"He's been here!"  Ruby yelled down the hallway.  "Check the trap!"

"What happened?"  Asked Alex from the hallway.

"He took some books.  Go look for anything out of place."

While Alex checked the basement, Ruby sat on the floor staring at the collection of books, trying to figure out what was missing.  The books were definitely part of her spellcraft section.  She started systematically trying to work through each type of magic she kept books on.

"The trap is fine.  Gabe was down there the whole time and didn’t hear anything."  Alex assured her when he got back.

"Guess Luci doesn’t want to say hi to me."  Observed Gabriel as he followed Alex.

"I guess so, but he didn't bother covering his tracks."  Ruby pointed at the messy bookshelf.  "Either he doesn't care that we know or he was in a hurry."

"Is him being in a hurry a good or bad thing?”  Alex mused, earning a shrug from Gabriel.  “So what'd he take exactly?"

“Definitely a spellbook or two.”  Muttered Ruby.

“Luci using a spellbook, now I’ve heard everything.”  Gabriel joked halfheartedly, but his eyes widened at a thought.  “They both kind of suck at magic, don’t they?”

In her first conversation with Cas, after fighting Uriel & Tambriel, Ruby had learned that angels weren’t naturally familiar with magics.  It had taken a few months for Heaven to properly educate its angels about the arcane arts & technology.  After that the playing field had revert to its previous imbalance for almost twenty years.  But Lucifer hadn’t been around when that push to educate angels about magic had taken place.  And while Sam was somewhat familiar with the basics of magic, he’d almost exclusively relied on his powers to get things done.  Neither of them had appreciated the power of magic because neither of them directly used it.

“I figured he’d have studied up over the past few months.”  Ruby regretted not thinking of it earlier, but the thought came back as part of her combat instincts.  She’d been surprised when the burning blood spell had been so effective.  “I guess he didn’t.”

“Ruby, you’ve gotta make use a binding spell or something-”  Gabriel began.

“Trust me, the gears are already turning.”  She said as she started looking for a few specific books.

"Luci- he went through Dean & Cas' room too.”  Kaylee panted while running down the hall into Ruby’s bedroom.  “A couple of drawers were pulled out."

"Oh god."  Ruby breathed as she double checked the shelf that had been pilfered.  "He took my divination books.  He's trying to go after them."

* * *

Cas first took Dean & Dylaniel to the small human village of Ocotal in Honduras.  Dean & Dylaniel tried to stay hidden in their small hostel room.  Cas fetched some food & other supplies for them rather than risking them being out in public.  Neither Dean nor Cas wanted to let Dylaniel out of their sight.  They both knew that at any moment their lives could be in danger.  

They had arrived an hour before sunset and Dean & Dylaniel were both exhausted from being uprooted from their home, so they called it an early night.  They shared the lumpy single bed while Cas watched over them.  Around two in the morning Dean woke up, realized Dylaniel wasn't in the bed, then sat up, heart pounding.  He relaxed when he saw his son asleep in Cas' arms, sitting next to the small window.

"He wanted to watch the sky."  Cas mouthed to Dean, who nodded in understanding.

It had been months since Dylaniel had seen the sky, confined to secure locations that were all windowless.  The thought of him being unable to fly let alone enjoy the fresh air made Dean's heart lurch.  The choice to keep him inside had been for his safety, but it had subordinated Dylaniel's happiness.  Dean wasn't sure whether he regretted the decision- Dylaniel was still alive after all, but he wished there had been a better way.

Knowing Cas he was probably carrying even greater pity if not guilt.  They were both incidentally responsible for their son's situation- they'd both flaunted their rebellion of having him.  But seeing the way Cas watched the night sky, Dean couldn't help wondering if the sky meant more to angels. He knew that angels could fly beyond just teleporting from A to B.  It was probably a sensation unlike anything he'd ever know.  He hadn't imagined what kind of effect taking the sky away might have on their son, but Cas may have known.

After treasuring a few minutes holding his sleeping son, Cas carefully returned him to the bed.  Dean reached up to squeeze his arm in reassurance before making sure that Dylaniel was in a comfortable position.

An hour later, Cas heard the rustling of wings outside their warded hostel door.  He didn't risk waiting to see who it was.  Kneeling down, Cas wrapped his arms around his sleeping family, then teleported them to the edge of Bunbury, Australia.   

Dean & Cas agreed to stay outside of town this time.  Dean snuck into a restaurant’s parking lot and hot-wired a beat up SUV.  They drove away from civilization, but stayed in range of the radio broadcasts.  As it started getting dark, they parked in a small clearing down some overgrown path through a nearby forests.  

They listened to the news on the radio.  There had been a series of massive explosions throughout the Americas & Europe, primarily focused on AFE bases and human cities.  Some sort of battle had occurred in Grand Junction, Colorado resulting in a cascading effect to the surrounding area.  At least thirty five human communities in the area had gone silent.  The AFE released a statement that they were working with Albuquerque & Billings to contain the situation.  After hearing speculation on the death toll for twenty minutes, Dean turned off the radio and decided to join his son.

Dylaniel sat on the ground watching the night sky.  Every once in awhile his eyes would follow some movement in the stars that Dean didn't recognize.  As the night grew later, Dylaniel began shivering slightly.  Rather than telling him to go warm up in the car, Dean wrapped a blanket around his son and sat with him until the boy fell asleep.  Then Dean delicately carried Dylaniel to the car, laid him down in the back seat, and joined Cas who was sitting on the hood.

"We need to find a better long term solution than sleeping in a car."  Whispered Cas.

"Do you really think we stand a chance at having a long term?"  Dean sighed.

"Always."  Cas took Dean's hand in his own.

"I don't know how the world can keep going..."  Dean couldn't speak for a few seconds because of the tightness in his throat.  "Sammy's gone."

Cas wrapped his arm around Dean, who embraced him back.  A few tears fell from Dean's eyes.  Cas wiped the tears away with his thumbs while caressing Dean's cheek.  They kissed, slowly at first, but then more desperately.  Dean's hand slid down Cas' chest & stomach.  He started unbuttoning Cas' pants, stopped and bit his lip in mild frustration.

After quickly looking around at their surroundings, Dean took Cas' hand.  They climbed off the car as carefully as they could, so as not to wake their son, then they went to a large nearby tree.  They stood just far enough around the tree so that Cas could see the car, but their bodies were obscured.

Dean started undoing Cas' pants, then dropped to his knees in the darkness.  He’d spent months feeling inadequate & helpless, consumed by despair.  He wanted to feel something else- anything else.  Even if it was fleeting, in just this one thing, he wanted to feel like he was capable.  He wanted to give Cas the best head of his life because it might be the last chance they'd ever get.  Cas managed to keep himself from moaning, but he gripped the tree so hard that he broke off large parts of bark.  

Dean stopped before Cas could cum.  This might be their last intimate moment, he was sure as hell getting his.  He stood up and started taking off his own pants.  Dean barely got his belt around his thighs before Cas began prepping him.

When Cas finally did press into him, Dean had to bite his lip so he wouldn't cry out.  Dean wanted to pin Cas to the ground, but then they wouldn't be able to see the car, so they kept their standing position by the tree.  He stood, hands & chest against the tree, Cas' hands on his hips.  With each thrust, he pushed back making it all the more powerful.  

His fears & sadness faded to the background as he chased his high.  He was with the angel, who fell for him in every sense of the word.  Someone who loved him, with whom he shared a life, a family, a death sentence, a seat at the end of the world.  He was with the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, however short that might be.

Dean lost his sense of time, direction, context, but somehow he knew they had to be quiet.  At one point Cas started to groan, so Dean turned his upper body to face him.  Dean grabbed Cas' hair and pulled him hard into a kiss.  Cas enthusiastically pounded Dean into the side of the tree.  Grinding against the tree produced stinging cool sensation on Dean's chest, which triggered some primal urge to bite Cas' lip so hard that they could taste blood.  With a few more frantic thrusts, Dean muffed his own moans as he came.  Cas finished with him, breathing heavily on the back of Dean's neck.

Cas healed his bleeding lip, then Dean's scratched up chest & shirt before they hastily got their pants back on and returned to the car.  Everything was falling apart, but that'd still been the best sex they'd had in almost a year.  Thoroughly confused, Dean fell asleep on the hood of the car holding Cas in his arms.

* * *

Cas was contemplating the stars when he heard a prayer directed at him.  He hesitated at first, fearful that opening himself up to a prayer might somehow give away their location.  Since going off the grid he'd avoided tuning in to pirate radio for that same reason, but a personal prayer wasn't necessarily a two way street.  As soon as he let it in he was glad he did.  The prayer was from Kaylee.

"Castiel, please hear this prayer.  Lucifer is looking for you.  He's going to try using divination magic.  Mom says that you've got to get some blood wards up ASAP.  Try to have Dyl pray to Gabe or Anael, we're putting cloaking spells on now.  We'll come help you.  He's not good with magic.  We're trying to figure out how to get him."

Cas woke up Dean & Dylaniel, then teleported them to Yibin, China.  They decided to take cover inside an abandoned factory, where they could create multiple barriers of warding.  Cas warded the exterior wall of the building while Dean worked on an interior set of walls.  Inside that they found a storeroom that would provide another set of walls to ward.  Dean and Cas worked on warding the storeroom while Dylaniel sat inside and prayed to Gabriel & Anael.  When the wards were up, Dean & Cas went into the storeroom to wait with their son.

They only had to wait ten minutes before Dylaniel's eyes flashed blue.  The subtle fear on the boy's face left no doubt who had arrived first.  Cas tried to teleport them away, but he could feel himself struggling against a much greater power.  He looked at Dean with an expression of anguish.  

For a moment Dean didn't understand what was happening, then his eyes widened.  Cas ran out the storeroom door.  Dean tried to stop him, but the angel telekinetically closed and sealed the metal door behind him.  

"Cas, don't do it!  Just go!"  Dean yelled through the door.  He could hear several heavy objects being stacked in front of the door.  He leaned against the door for a moment to try regaining his composure, then he sat down on the floor next to his son.  

Dylaniel climbed onto his dad's lap and hugged him.  Dean held him tightly while trying not to cry.

* * *

"Castiel."  Lucifer looked his brother over while entering the factory floor.  He shook his head in disappointment.  "You aren't just fallen, you're lost."

"You don’t deserve to pass judgment on me."  Cas stood in front of the barricaded storeroom door, angel blade drawn.

"Really?  Without me, would you even know the word 'freedom'?  You think that you've blazed the path of the righteous, but you've only failed to understand history."

"I understand that your rebellion failed."

"Did it?"  Lucifer smiled.  "Because I think that right now I am the one with the most power."

Lucifer stepped toward the door, but Cas stood his ground.  The Archangel hurled Cas across the room, then continued moving for the storeroom door.  Cas got to his feet and charged Lucifer, who dodged the attack.  With a quick swing, Lucifer telekinetically slammed Cas into the concrete floor, breaking a dozen bones.  Cas could barely resist when Lucifer grabbed his angel blade and tossed it to the side.

"Just stay down."  Lucifer ordered as looked at the broken, lesser angel.  "As much as you deserve to die for your crimes, you might serve some function.  I could be convinced to spare your life."

"I won't let you hurt my family."

"I am your family.  Those other things are your plight.  That thing poisoned you and you're too blind to see it."  Lucifer grabbed Cas' left hand and pulled off the gold wedding band.  "Do you think so little of yourself that you bind yourself to some animal?"

"The only one I think little of is you."  Cas snarled.  Lucifer kicked Cas in the chest, sending him rolling across the floor.  Cas settled on his back.  Lucifer used telekinesis to rip open the angel's dress shirt, then stepped on his chest to hold him in place.  He held the wedding ring above Cas' heart, then he began heating the metal.

"This obsession you have with Michael's vessels, it will only hurt you in the end."  A drop of molten gold landed on Cas' chest, burning the flesh.  "Their only purpose is to give us form.  They're vehicles- they weren't made for personal investment.  They'll wither & die- the older one already is.  The half breed, he won't even survive long enough to  grow old."

"You talk about freedom-"  Cas spoke through tears and bloody coughs.  "Well I love them- I accept that they're mortals-  What about my freedom?  What about my choice?"

"Your choice, it's soiled our family."  Lucifer pressed on Cas' chest, cracking several ribs.  "Your perversion-"

"Leave him alone."  Gabriel said as he walked into the room, blade drawn.  On his belt hung small bag that Sam would've noted as being a possible spell component.  Lucifer understood that Gabriel was going to try something deceptive or cute- they would almost certainly fight.  The thought made Lucifer's mood darken.

"Gabriel, I understand you're fucking a false idol..."  Lucifer dropped the melted ring onto Cas, then turned his attention to Gabriel.  He tilted his head from side to side uncertainly.  "You always did have your unusual hobbies."

"Luci, you've got to stop."  Gabriel's voice was soft, but he kept his angel blade raised.  "I don't want to fight you."

"Then don't."  Lucifer pleaded with his brother.  "You were always my favorite.  I'm not unreasonable.  We could make this right.  With the two of us united, we could make our family whole again."

"If you want to make things right between us, you have to walk away, right now.  You have your vessel, just leave them alone.  Walk away."

"I can't do that.  They are The Sword Of Heaven-". Lucifer pointed toward the storeroom.

"If you destroy their souls, Michael will just make another vessel."

"I won't leave any humans for him to possess."  Lucifer spoke with a certainty that drew the line in the sand.

"I can't let you do that."  Said Gabriel.

Lucifer let loose a circular blast of the First Light at around waist height.  The ring of light dissolved the illusion of Gabriel, which he had been talking to.  When the light struck the real Gabriel, who had been standing to his left, it ignited the small bag on Gabriel's belt.

Gabriel put out the flame, then clutched the bag.  He began reciting an incantation, but Lucifer charged him, forcing him to divide his attention.  Lucifer swung his blade at Gabriel, who parried while holding the bag out of range of the attack.  With a quick sweeping motion, Lucifer telekinetically knocked the legs out from under him, but the trickster disappeared before he hit the ground.

"I know you're here still."  Lucifer goaded as he locked the exits.  Thanks to the warding on the building, he'd had to walk inside and he was slightly more powerful than Gabriel.  Furthermore,  he was actively trying to block others from teleporting.  Gabriel probably couldn't teleport within 200' of the building and lesser angels would find it a no fly zone for half a mile.  Gabriel had merely hidden himself again.  

In a way it wasn't so bad.  If Gabriel wanted to stay hidden, he couldn't continue reciting the spell.  It didn't seem likely that Gabriel would try to ambush him- his little brother always hesitated to take those decisive steps... unless provoked.

Lucifer approached the crumpled & bleeding Cas with his blade in hand.  He held Cas firmly in place with telekinesis and could feel Gabriel trying to push the lesser angel out of the way.  Raising his blade, he heard the faint movement of clothing behind him.  Lucifer tucked his blade under his left arm & behind him, stabbing upward into Gabriel's chest.

Gabriel flickered into view and Lucifer caught him before he could hit the ground.  Gabriel's eyes looked from his brother to the barricaded door.  His lips moved, trying to continue the spell, but only light came out.  Lucifer gently laid his brother's body on the floor, then turned to the storeroom door.

* * *

Dean could hear talking outside the storeroom, but he couldn't make out the words.  His heart sank when he heard the sound of blades colliding, then several crashes.  He led Dylaniel to a far corner that was mostly obscured by a large metal rack, then he drew his angel blade.

"Dylan, whatever happens I want you to stay here and don't make a sound."  He instructed and kissed his son's forehead.

Dean hurried back to the center of the room.  He could hear the barricade that Cas had created sliding away from the door.  The handle jiggled, then stopped.  For a moment he wondered if the person on the other side had given up, but he was wrong.  The steel hinges creaked as the door was ripped from the wall.

When the dust from the shattered door frame & plaster cleared Lucifer walked into the storeroom.  His eyes looked Dean over with a casual interest, but his lips curled down in loathing.  He wasn't armed, though Dean understood that Lucifer didn't need a weapon to be dangerous.

"I'll kill you."  Dean warned.  He'd meant to make it a threat, but he realized that it also was an attempt at self encouragement.

"I guess we'll find out."  Lucifer was seething with a personal anger that Dean didn't understand.

Dean braced himself for some catastrophic use of powers, to have his neck snapped with telekinesis or to be incinerated with the First Light.  But it didn't come, Lucifer started moving toward him.  He had a startling thought that the Archangel wanted to actually fight him.  

Without his powers Dean could take Sam in a fight hands down.  His little brother was almost two decades out of practice.  Lucifer was an entirely different variable.  He'd been imprisoned for millennia, which probably left him rusty too.  Though there was no telling how much of that was made up for with angelic skill & strength.  Also, that was assuming it would stay a powers free fight.  Lucifer was unarmed after all.

Dean feigned an attack, then quickly switched to a real strike from a low angle to try hitting the angel's temporarily exposed abdomen.  It probably would've connected if he'd been fighting anyone else, but Lucifer telekinetically stopped the blade mid-stab.  With a gesture, Dean's fingers were pried back from the blade's handle, then it was knocked to the side, discarded.  So, it was going to be a fistfight.

Lucifer kicked Dean in the chest, breaking several ribs and slamming him into the wall.  He cradled his torso for a moment while looking up at Lucifer.  It was taking all his willpower to not look to his left to check on Dylaniel, but he didn't want to bring any attention to him.  Dean dodged a punch, which dented the sheet metal wall behind him, then dove forward.  

He collided with Lucifer's chest, knocking him back several feet.  Lucifer brought his elbow down on the middle of his back.  Stabbing pain spread down his lower back, into his legs, and he fell to his knees.  Before he could experiment with holding himself upright, Lucifer kneed him in the chest, shattering his left clavicle.  Lucifer stood over Dean's trembling body and raised his hand to make a final blow.  

Dylaniel ran out of the corner, picked up the angel blade, then lunged at Lucifer.  Lucifer barely dodged the surprise attack, suffering a cut on his forearm.  He grabbed the boy by his left wrist and held him up.  The boy dangled, but managed to take another swing with the blade.  Lucifer grabbed the blade with his left hand, then began heating it.  Dylaniel held onto the blade until it started burning his skin, then reluctantly released it.

"So this is the little filth that's worth the life of an Archangel?"  Lucifer looked Dylaniel over.

"I swear to God, if you-"  Dean managed.

"Swear all you like, God isn't listening."  Lucifer's free hand gripped Dylaniel's neck, forcibly turning the boy's head to inspect it.  Dean was shaking... waiting to hear a snap, but Lucifer released the neck.  "But what were you going to threaten?  To kill me?  We all saw how that turned out.  Anyway, that would be killing your brother.  He's still in here you know, fighting away, screaming at me to stop- because he knows.  He knows what I'm going to do, to you, your accomplice, your son."

Lucifer squeezed Dylaniel's wrist, producing three loud cracks.  The boy cringed, but didn't cry out.  Lucifer examined the boy before turning his attention back to Dean.

"He's such a pathetic little thing."

Dylaniel wriggled despite the pain in his left wrist.  His right hand slipped into his pants pocket, through a hidden fold.  In single fluid motion, he withdrew the flat knife that he wore strapped to his thigh and swung the blade at Lucifer.  The blade pierced Lucifer's flesh between two ribs near the heart, but stop while only an inch deep.  The metal shattered in Dylaniel's hand.

Lucifer gripped the boy's right shoulder, breaking several more bones, then threw him against the wall.  His head impacted the concrete floor with an alarming thwack when he hit the ground.  Dean dragged himself to Dylaniel, while Lucifer slowly walked toward them.

"It's okay, you're fine.  Daddy's here."  Dean whispered through his tears, while trying to shield his son.

Lucifer staggered, then touched his head.  His whole body convulsed.  Then the lights behind him exploded and one of the metal racks flew across the room.  The Archangel fell to his knees while clutching his head.  He screamed in something that sounded like in mixture of Enochian & Abyssal before collapsing forward onto the ground.  After a few seconds, Sam looked up at Dean in horror, then vanished.

* * *

12/01/2028

Ruby sat on the concrete floor of the basement near the bottom of the staircase.  She stared at the dried blood where she had been knocked out by Lucifer just a day or two earlier.  There wasn't much point in cleaning it up, there wasn't much point in anything until they knew.

Gabe & Anael were off somewhere tracking Dylaniel's prayers.  Kaylee was consolidating the AFE's North American leadership after it'd suffered the loss of… 36 bases at last count.  Alex had taken up the mantle of rallying demon troops while Kaylee was trying to create a more integrated army.

Ruby was supposed to be researching offensive spells that might work against Lucifer, should Gabe & Anael fail, but she'd needed a moment alone.  As soon as everyone else had left she went to her bedroom to collect some books, but being alone in her & Sam's bedroom was too painful.  The bed was full of memories of tender caresses and talk of the future.  She didn't want to be there.  Some weird impulse compelled her to retreat to the depths.  Maybe she wanted to return to Hell or maybe she just wanted to literally have nowhere to go, but up.

So Ruby found herself sitting on the floor across from the angel-proof cell, spellbooks unopened on the floor beside her, when Sam appeared in front of her.  She scrambled to her feet and drew an angel blade from her belt.  He had his back to her and stared at the open gate leading to the warded section, conflicted.  She held the angel blade ready for a fight, but when he turned to face her his eyes were soft.  His cheeks were wet from tears and his hands had blood on them.

She took a step toward him, but he backed away from her.  He stood trembling at the edge of the warding with his back to it.  When his hands rose defensively, he became transfixed by the blood.

"I'm sorry- I tried to stop him- I don't want to hurt anyone-"  He managed between panicked breaths.  

She moved closer to him.  His eyes didn’t quite meet hers and he began crying.  He recoiled from her, scared to touch her, but he seemed to unconsciously stop at the brink of the gate.  After a moment, she realized that he had been looking at her bruised jaw, split lip, & broken nose- sustained when Lucifer had struck her.  At the time she'd suggested energy not be wasted healing such minor injuries, now the guilt it was inflicting on Sam was anything but minor.

"This wasn’t you.”  She said as she touched her face and then took his hand.  “None of it was you."

“I couldn’t stop him- I can’t.”  Blood began trickling from his nose as he cringed in pain.  The temperature in the room began to drop and the spellbooks skittered across the floor.  He looked at the angel blade she was holding, then the cell.  “Just end it.”

She pulled him down to her and kissed him softly.  Like too many before, their kiss tasted like blood & tears.  Reluctantly, she broke the kiss, then looked him in the eyes.   Her hands caressed his damp cheeks, slid down his neck, then rested over his heart.  "I love you."

His eyes widened slightly with surprise.  She could see him losing focus, possibly recognizing the red flag of those long coveted words.  With a gentle smile of reassurance, she shoved him backwards over the threshold.  

He screamed as soon as he crossed the threshold into the warded section.  His body was convulsing even before it hit the floor.  After a moment, he was completely motionless.  She couldn’t even tell if he was breathing.  Ruby rolled Sam onto his back, then took his pulse.  He was still alive, though his heartbeat was weak & irregular.  She held his hands and wonder whether the blood belonged to Cas, Dean, or Dylaniel- maybe all of them, or any of the millions more killed by Lucifer.

Ruby placed the tip of the angel blade just above his heart.  She knew this was what he’d meant when he said “just end it”.  He'd asked her to kill him if he changed into something he didn't want to be.  But she had refused, she’d said that she was going to save him.  She'd had hope then, and now she wasn't sure what she had left.

While he was temporarily unconscious in the warding, Lucifer was equally vulnerable, but once he was moved into the interior of his cell they would start to recover.  Even in a little cell, if Lucifer had access to his powers, how could anyone really force him back into this exposed state?  Maybe this was their chance to be free, to save the world?  Would Heaven keep fighting if they knew that their prophesied version of the Apocalypse couldn't take place?  Or was the world just continue riding the momentum of hate?  

Killing him would be the safer move, almost everyone in existence would kill him.  He was just one life weighed against the world, but to her they were one in the same.  In twenty years, they’d never given up on each other and every time their faith in each other had been inspired anew.  She’d believed in him, that he would overpower Lucifer, no matter the agony & torments it entailed.  But when Kaylee had described being hurt by Lucifer- when he’d hurt their children- when he’d looked at her with uncaring eyes… Her faith had wavered.  

She’d told herself that Sam was dead, lost beyond any recognition or rescue.  It had hurt more than she could feel… maybe she hadn’t been able to feel anything.  She’d been too far gone.  She was dead too and her heart had just been too foolish to stop beating.  

Then out of nowhere he was back, suffering in every way imaginable and asking to die.  He’d fought against incredible odds to give the world another chance.  He’d given her another chance, another choice of profound consequences.  She could end his life, his suffering, maybe end it all... or her fool’s heart could keep beating fueled by the faith he’d just renewed in her.  Did she have faith in him to endure?  Did she have faith in herself to save him?  Was their love worth endangering the entire world?  

She tossed the angel blade aside, then knelt down and whispered in his ear.

"I hope you can forgive me someday, but I'm going to be selfish.  I can't kill you because you're my hope.  I'll work until the end of the world to save you because you're my world."  Ruby habitually pushed a few stray hairs out of his face.  "So yeah, your soul is gonna carry millions of scars because I’m too stubborn to let you go.  We’re a team.  When this world ends, we'll see it together."

She kissed him on the lips, then dragged him into the featureless cell.  After locking the gates she went upstairs to call Kaylee.  The shock was still a bit too much for her to process, so she fell back on her responsibilities while she still could focus on alerting the others.  

Kaylee’s reaction to the news that Lucifer was contained barely even registered.  Ruby managed to convey that she wasn’t sure whose blood he’d been covered in.  There was a long silence as Kaylee processed her mom’s statement.  A fatigued static started creeping into her mind as Kaylee assured her that they had angels looking for Anael & Gabriel in the hopes of finding Cas, Dean, & Dylaniel.  Kaylee said something about coming home soon, but Ruby wasn’t honestly sure how the call ended.

After the call, she went into the bathroom and began washing the blood off her hands.  When she felt a little dizzy, she sat down on the edge of the bathtub without turning off the sink faucet, then started sobbing uncontrollably.  It took her a minute to stop.  

Things would be better... but they didn't feel any better.  The carnage would quiet down, but there was still a mountain of corpses to scale.  Her family was scattered, possibly having suffered its own casualties.  She wanted to shield her kids from seeing Sam.  She had to protect them and comfort them.  Even though he was alive, for now they didn’t have their father to help support them.  She didn’t have Sam to support her.  She was the vanguard of their grief, so she swallowed her tears.

Ruby grabbed some towels & a large bowl of water.  After letting herself back through the exterior gate, she locked it, then tossed the key through the bars toward the stairs.  She continued beyond the interior gate and tossed the second key to join the first.  Then she sat down on the cold concrete floor and started washing Sam's hands.  If there was even a chance he'd wake up, he wouldn't wake up to find blood on his hands.


	21. 2029

7/15/2029

Dylaniel descended the staircase into the lower basement.  He held his leather messenger bag flush to his body, hoping to make as little noise as possible.  For months he’d debated going down to confront Lucifer, but today the timing had been serendipitous.  

The only people in the bunker to stop him were Alex & his dad.  His cousin had been busy watching a movie in one of the parlors.  And his dad had been reading reports in the library while presumably listening to music.  Dylaniel had slipped away from his studies unobserved.

To his disappointment, Lucifer was watching with rapt attention when Dylaniel reached the bottom of the stairs.  He’d tried to open the door to the basement quietly, but the Archangel’s senses were better than he’d anticipated.  Even though thing wasn’t going to plan, he continued into the basement.

“What brings something like you down here?”  Lucifer’s question began as little more than a snarl, but by the end of the sentence there was a dark amusement to his voice.

Dylaniel wasn’t sure what to say.  He’d been hoping that the Archangel would be incapacitated.  His dad had repeatedly complained to his xe that Sam & Lucifer were largely nonfunctional.  Faced with a completely lucid foe was something he hadn’t expected.  More than that, he wasn’t prepared to see such a venomous expression from his uncle Sam’s face.

“Is your trouble with speaking or are you as deaf as your dad?  Or is it your mind that’s damaged?”  Lucifer asked after waiting several seconds for Dylaniel to reply.  “You know that everyone is aware there’s something wrong with you.  It’s not just the fact that you’re soiled- it’s actually funny.  The last of Michael’s line and you’re a cripple.”

“I’m fine.”  Dylaniel spoke up, but he suddenly felt very aware of his posture.  He shifted his weight, trying to look more like how he thought an average human might stand.

“That’s what they’ve taught you to say.”  Lucifer was nearly purring and hardly seemed to notice the few drops of blood escaping his right tear duct & ear.  “Don’t you ever wonder _why_ you’re broken?  Don’t you ever wonder why you would turn out this way unless it was God’s will?  The first publicized offense to the natural order and you’re defective.”

“He doesn’t care about me- it’s chance- it’s not my fault.”  Dylaniel’s throat felt tight as he gripped the leather bag tighter.  “There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Sam’s seen it.  Ever since you were born Dean’s tried so hard to pretend that you were normal, to pretend that he could love you.  You were his one shot at having a family and what a disappointment.  He wanted a son, but all he got was another third rate solider.  The only person you’ve ever come close to killing was Castiel when you were born-”

Dylaniel was trembling slightly.  He pulled one of his dad’s pistols from his bag.  The gun dwarfed him, but its weight didn’t bother him.  He aimed at Lucifer, then gathered his conviction, blessing the weapon.

“You think it’s that easy to kill me?”

Dylaniel unloaded the entire magazine and kept pulling the trigger several times before he realized that Lucifer was still alive.  The Archangel had merely teleported to the other side of his cell, out of the line of fire.  He telekinetically pulled the bullets from the wall and held them in his palm.

“You know that you won’t be the one to kill me, right?”  Lucifer smiled at Dylaniel.  “You won’t kill Michael either.  You’d never kill your dad.  You’re just too weak to get the job done.  Michael must be furious to know that his grace wasn’t just soiled, but it was wasted.  All that potential just buried in such a small pathetic thing.”

“I’ll kill you.”  Dylaniel watched Lucifer rolling the bullets on his palm.  “I’m not scared of you.”

Lucifer telekinetically hurled one of the bullets through the bars.  It lost some control & momentum as it passed beyond Lucifer’s influence, but it struck Dylaniel’s left leg piercing the flesh.

The door at the top of the stairs burst open as Dean came rushing down.  Lucifer tried firing at Dean but the bullet stopped short, grabbed by Alex, who followed his uncle down.  Dean didn’t even look at Lucifer.  He started applying pressure to the gunshot wound, then wrapped his arms around Dylaniel picking him up.

“Dean, we were just talking about you-”  Lucifer started, but Dean was already carrying his son up the stairs.

* * *

“Don’t listen to anything he said.”  Dean warned while tucking Dylaniel into bed.  Cas had rushed home to heal the gunshot wound.  Despite the fact that their son didn’t cry from the pain, they both agreed that Cas should partially sedate him.  “He’s not your uncle.”

“Lucifer is my uncle.”  Dylaniel still managed to correct his dad through his drowsiness.

“You know what I mean.”  Dean had taken the pistol from Dylaniel’s hands after getting him upstairs.  He didn’t need to ask why he’d gone down there.  “Promise me that you won’t go down there by yourself.”

“You’re scared he’ll kill me?”

“I’m scared of a lot of ways it could go.”  Dean admitted.

“I promise.”  Dylaniel said solemnly.  “You didn’t ask me… make me promise not to kill him.”

Dean pulled the bedsheets taut and tucked the blanket under Dylaniel’s shoulders in order to buy himself a few extra seconds to reconsider the issue.  It wasn’t the sort of thing he ever wanted to talk about, but at the very least he’d been hoping that if it had to occur, it’d be many years from then.  That didn’t stop him from occasionally worrying about Dylaniel eventually being the natural choice to fight Lucifer should the need arise- Dean wouldn’t be alive forever.  And he knew that Dylaniel took promises so seriously that he’d grown to never throw the word around lightly.

“I wouldn’t ask you to promise me something like that.”  Dean assured.  “I couldn’t kill him, maybe I’d never really be able to- hopefully we’ll never find out…  I don’t want you going down there to confront him, but if something ever happens I want you to know that it’s okay to protect yourself.”

“He said I couldn’t kill him.”  Dylaniel didn’t meet his dad’s eyes.

“Assholes love to put down people that they’re scared of.”  Dean tilted his head in an allusion to a shrug.

“He isn’t scared of me.”

“There’s a shattered knife on your wall that says otherwise.”  Dean pointed to the fragments of the knife that Dylaniel stabbed Lucifer with half a year earlier.

“Is Sam dead?”  Dylaniel asked quietly.  

He knew that Sam was a sore subject for his dad, but he was trying to understand what had just happened.  Years earlier he’d learned that some inhabited vessels were alive & some were dead.  The truth was that he didn’t know what his uncle’s state was.  At various times he’d overheard his parents & Ruby refer to Lucifer as ‘destroying’, ‘strangling’, or ‘overpowering’ Sam, but it wasn’t clear if that was figurative, literal, and/or lethal.

“No, but he’s not well- it’s like he’s hurt, but we can’t make him better.”  Dean closed his eyes for a moment, trying to maintain his composure.  “Most of the time he’s not in control and we don’t know what he’s perceiving or how he’s doing.”   

“Is he ever Sam when you visit him?”

“Sometimes, for a few minutes.  I can see him…”  Dean rubbed his face to wipe away the forming tears.  “Just remember that he loves you… and I know that he saved us before, but you can’t ever count on him again.  You understand?”

“Yes.”


	22. 2030

3/12/2030

Everything was too stressful.  Tom had become distant since Sam’s imprisonment.  Kaylee was trying to manage Hell while teaching her little brother what she’d learned from their father.  Sam was barely coherent most of the time, though Lucifer sometimes gave him a pardon when Ruby or his biological children came to visit.  Dean was still struggling with what essentially was the total loss of his brother.  And Ruby…

Ruby was exhausted.  She’d been trying to keep her family afloat, but most of the time it was taking all of her willpower to keep her own head above water.  Though she had to admit it was a common feeling. The conflict with Lucifer’s forces had killed almost a quarter of her friends & colleagues.  Technical martial status aside, it felt like almost everyone was a widow or widower- and those were the lucky ones.  If Radomir’s gunshot wound had been an inch to the right, Dean & Cas would’ve become guardians to their four year old goddaughter.

Ruby sat down in the big soft armchair in her bedroom, then sighed.  As an afterthought she unbuttoned her pants to get more comfortable.  She looked up at the wall in front of her, which was covered in notes for her latest project, a weapon that could kill an angel while leaving the vessel unharmed.  It was a seemingly impossible task, but she couldn’t bring herself to give up on Sam.  Her head sunk down to her chest from discouragement & fatigue and her eyes settled on her loosened pants.

* * *

“No.  No fucking way.”  Ruby exclaimed as she paced in Cas & Dean’s bedroom.  Cas sat on the edge of the bed watching her.  "I’ve been using hexes- I’ve been careful.“

"Lucifer could’ve interfere.”  Cas suggested.  
  
“That son of a bitch!”  She yelled.

Dean opened the door of the bedroom to find Cas looking concerned & Ruby looking caught between rage & crying.  
  
“What’s wrong?”  Dean ask cautiously.  
  
“I’m pregnant.”  
  
“I don’t- what?”  Dean hurried inside and closed the door.  "How?“  
  
"The last few times I went down to see Sam Lucifer left him alone-”  
  
“You had sex with him?”  Dean ran his fingers through his hair.  "Rube, you can’t do that- he’s not…“  
  
"He’s not what?”  
  
“He’s sick, or at least he’s not right.  How do you know he understands what’s happening?”  
  
“Jesus, I’m not abusing him.  He was lucid.”  Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose.  "I know that he’s all over the map when you try to talk to him, but sometimes he’s okay with me.  He knows where he is, what’s happening-“  
  
"And fucking him seems like a good idea?”  
  
“When he’s Sam, he’s Sam.  I’m not going to treat him like he’s a child or disabled.  So yeah, a few times things got physical.”  
  
“I’m not saying you should…”  Dean leaned his back against the dresser and covered his faces with his hands.  "I don’t know.  I don’t know how we’re supposed to deal with him… I don’t know how we’re supposed to take care of him.  That fucking- Lucifer!“  
  
Dean swung around, knocking his collection of vinyls & record player to the floor.  He hunched over the dresser with his back turned to Ruby & Cas.  Cas silently approached Dean and hugged him.  Dean was too fatigued to care that Ruby saw him crying.  When she walked over to pat Dean’s back, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into their hug.  
  
"We’ll figure this out.”  Cas reassured them.  "Lucifer can’t make Sam hurt anyone else.  The kids are safe.  It might take some trying, but we’ll find a way ahead.“  
  
"This baby, it’s…”  Dean started, but he wasn’t sure what to say.  The news was too new & confusing.  "How far along is it?“  
  
"It’s hard to say, it’s a nephilim-”  Cas reconsidered his statement.  "Well… I don’t know how to categorize it since you aren’t human.“  
  
"I’m not having it.”  Ruby said flatly.  "I’m not having Lucifer’s kid.“  
  
"It’s Sam’s kid.”  Dean sighed at the entire situation.  He wasn’t saying Lucifer wasn’t a factor, but to him it being his brother’s child was far more important.  
  
“Sam & I talked about it a few years ago.  We’re done with kids.  I’m not going back on that, especially with Lucifer in the picture.”  
  
“But…”  Ruby looked up at Dean with a determination that stopped him before he could even figure out how to articulate his feelings.  
  
“I’m not going to turn around and have some kid after deciding not to- I’m not going to betray Sam like that.  It was his choice too.”  
  
“Fuck, I’m sorry.  I know I don’t have a say in this.”  Dean closed his eyes, trying to bury his anguish.  "I just miss him…“  
  
"This kid isn’t some substitute for Sam.”  Ruby hugged Dean a little tighter.  "And if you want another kid or something, there are better ways-  I just can’t go through this.“  
  
"I know- I won’t ask you to… We’ve just had so many losses.  I just wish we had something to be happy about for once.”  
  
“Go hug Dyl.  Take him to visit Miro & Devi.  There’s your something to be happy about.”  Ruby offered.  Dean held her close to him & kissed the top of her head.  She rested her cheek against his chest, accepting whatever comfort she could, then turned to Cas.  "How long do you think I have to smoke out for in order to end it?“  
  
"A few minutes.  I can stay with you and let you know when to reenter your body.  Once it’s done, I can also… heal your body, so that you don’t have any pain or complications.”  
  
“Thanks Cas.”  
  
“Do you want to use our bed for smoking out?”  Dean offered.  Ruby had gotten rid of her & Sam’s queen bed a month earlier.  "I could go occupy Dylan and you could take care of it before the other kids come home.“  
  
"I’ll use your bed, but we don’t need to do this all cloak & dagger.  I’m gonna tell the kids, at least mine, you two can decide when or how to tell Dyl.  I just don’t want them finding out somehow and feeling like we’re keeping secrets.”  Ruby explained.  "If we’re gonna get through this whole mess, we need to do it together- all of us.“

* * *

 

5/18/2030

Sam was curled up in a ball on the floor of their cell.  He stared at the concrete wall and tried not to think of anything in particular.  If he focused on a thought or feeling too much Lucifer would find a way to turn it against him.  For what must’ve been years he'd been tormented in every way he could think of... maybe that was the problem.  Maybe he was giving Lucifer ideas?

"I'm capable of thinking up ways of torturing you on my own."  Lucifer reassured from across the cell.

"Could you stay out of my head?"  He didn't even know why he bothered asking.  Lucifer wasn't particularly interested in doing him any favors.  He didn't even need to talk in order for Lucifer to hear the question.  And he already knew the answer was no- he knew it because Lucifer knew it.  Sam held his head.

"Be careful with that circular thinking."  Lucifer said.  "Let's not get stuck in a feedback loop again."

"If it hurts you too, maybe it's worth it."  Sam muttered.

"But that little sense of accomplishment you’ll get will just make me feel better."  Lucifer countered.  "You know you're only hurting yourself."

Sam smiled reflectively at the joke, then cringed at his own reaction.

It was exhausting trying to draw the line between them and keep it clear.  Lucifer's thoughts and feelings were nearly his own, but for that little voice that whispered something was wrong.  It reminded Sam of his experience with depression, when he was younger, and again after Dean & Sa'dah's deaths.  During those difficult times, thoughts & impulses would enter his mind and he'd initially be confused into thinking they were his own, but the truth was that it was the illness talk.  Lucifer was just another affliction.

"I'm the purest of all the angels of Heaven,"  Lucifer walked over to Sam and stepped on his chest.  He didn't bother trying to get away, there wasn’t any point.  He just bore the pressure until his ribs broke.  "You're the affliction, the human, the demon.  You're the reason we're stuck enduring each other like this."

"You mean I'm the reason you're trapped."

The subsequent beating was about a 6 out of 10, which promptly rose to an 8 after Lucifer sensed Sam’s low opinion of it.  The damage would take several weeks to recover from if Lucifer didn't agree to heal him, but that was fine.  He wasn't going to beg and Lucifer wouldn't be persuaded anyway.  The thing that ended the beating prematurely was when Lucifer struck Sam's face, but blood trickled from Lucifer's nose instead.  They both looked at the blood, derailed by confusion.  

One of the unexpected effects of their intertwined minds was that their moods could change on a moment’s notice.  If they both experienced the same emotion one immediately after the other there was an amplification that would occur, drowning out the previous moods.  They were both surprised & confused by Lucifer’s bloody nose, which reset the focus of their attention.  Rationally they both knew that a beating had just occurred, but they were both more interested in the implications of the nosebleed and the prior animosity was unanimously put on hold.

"Does that mean… Do you know which one of us is real?"  Sam tried to shake his head, but everything hurt too much.  He reframe his thinking, hoping that maybe the pain wasn't as real as he'd thought.  With any luck, maybe he wasn’t in control of the body- though he wasn’t sure why the beating being wholly in his mind would make it any less painful.  "Do you know which of us is in control of the body?  Is that blood real?"

"We could make someone come down."  Lucifer suggested.  The most reliable method to determine which one of them was in control was to interact with someone else.  Nine times out of ten, they could see each other, which meant that one of them was essentially a hallucination.  But a third party only perceived the physical body and whichever one of them was controlling it.  

Honestly, it was the moments when Sam couldn't sense Lucifer that were the most unsettling.  It was never clear if Lucifer had found a way to evade him or if he'd finally decided to push Sam down into the subconscious somewhere.  If Sam was alone did that mean that he was in control of the body or was Lucifer going unchecked.  Strangely, Lucifer experienced the same combination of loathing & relief when they eventually would sync back up.

"Please don't bring anyone down.  I don't need to know."  Sam pleaded.

Lucifer's go to technique for getting the attention of someone outside generally involved hurting both of them so badly that someone watching would run down in fear.  Everyone else was helpless to do anything for the pair of them, but they hadn't yet accepted their helplessness.

"Fine."  Lucifer agreed.

Sam turned to look at Lucifer in surprise, which faded quickly.  It was hard to stay surprised by anything Lucifer did or thought.  The rationale for every statement or action followed like a penumbra.  Sometimes it was harder to spot, but it was generally there.   The source of Lucifer’s apparent mercy was that neither of them liked to upset Kaylee or Alex when unnecessary.

"I'm allowed to care about my vessels."  Sam rolled his eyes, but he could feel some sliver of sincerity in the statement.  For his part, Lucifer tilted his head in acknowledgement of the superficial absurdity of the statement.

"I'm your vessel."  

"Which is the only thing that's sparing you from worse torture for bringing me here."

"This is you going easy on me?"  Sam wanted to laugh, but it wasn't really funny- he knew it was true.

"You're not a bad person, Sam."  Despite the pain in his ribs, he did start laughing at that.  

"What the fuck does that even mean?  Is that a compliment or what?"  

This fucking relativism was disorienting.  Lucifer thought of himself as a noble figure, but Sam thought of him as a genocidal maniac... But they both could see each other's perspectives, and not in a truly empathetic way.  Everything that was subjective was dangerously in a state of flux.  He wished it would stop.  He didn't know why it hadn't stopped.  

"Why don't you just bury me?"  Sam asked.

With a little effort Lucifer could probably push Sam away into the recesses of his own mind.  Back before they had gotten into their cell Sam had to fight for control with all his will, but now that he was trapped without any hope of escape he barely saw the point in fighting.  He only bothered trying to survive for the brief interactions with his family.  "I know I'm your hostage or whatever, but you could just hide me away..."

"You wouldn't even fight it."  Lucifer finished the thought.  Sam stared at Lucifer in... he'd run out of defeat long ago.  "It's not to torture you-"

"Not entirely."  Sam muttered, causing Lucifer to smile.

"We're too close.  I made you to fit me, you're my original vessel for this bloodline.  There's so much between us..."

"You screwed it up.  That's why I can read your mind too."  Sam had struck a nerve, he felt it.  Lucifer had underestimated something- not him exactly, maybe resilience or love or humanity.

"Don't you dare treat me like a fool.  I am too profound for you even comprehend and you're barely more than a tool."  Lucifer knelt down next Sam and gripped his neck.  "It's vital that you know your place-"

"How're you supposed to beat that into me when you don't even know where you stop and I begin."  Sam was surprised & intrigued by the idea that maybe Lucifer was going easy on him because the torture hurt the Archangel a little in turn.

Lucifer lifted Sam up by his neck, then slammed him against the concrete wall.  He pressed until he heard the cracking of bone, probably the back of Sam's skull.

"Don't think that just because I dislike it, I'll fail to do what I need to in order to keep you in your place.  I may care for the wellbeing of my vessel, but that includes teaching you lessons."

Sam couldn't help but grin through the pain. That was an idea, something to keep him entertained.  He could turn the tables and try to teach Lucifer... what, tolerance?  Maybe, he did have an infinite amount of time alone with the guy.

"Do you really think that between the two of us, you'll make the bigger impact?"  Lucifer’s question was bordering on a wager.

"I made a pretty big impact in Hell."  Sam jabbed.  

The fact that Hell had sided with Sam instead of its creator had been a minor sore point for the Archangel’s pride.  He didn't care for the demons, but he'd expected their blind loyalty.  Lucifer's eyes narrowed as he leaned close to Sam's ear.

"Not as big an impact as you'll make when we get out of here and I make your hands kill every single one of those miserable things."  Whispered Lucifer.  Anger started to well up again in Sam, but he tried futilely to hide it.  "You did the best you could, but when all you have to work with is worst filth in existence... Well, it's no wonder your soul is so tarnished."

"I'm sorry I wasn't listening, I was-"  Sam started to give his snarky reply, but Lucifer started burning his throat.  It didn't matter, Sam didn't need to speak for his strike to hit.  Lucifer knew what he was going to say.  'I was distracted by the tarnish on your grace.'

* * *

 

11/03/2030

“The expansion of the northeast quadrant Upper Pits is going well, but it’s caused a little infighting over which section we build out next.  The upshot is that I have a bunch of meetings tomorrow.  Alex won’t be sitting in on those, so he should be able to visit you.”  Kaylee said as she packed up her plate & utensils.  She had arranged a little picnic for her & her dad.  Sam didn’t actually have to eat, but participating in any sort of normal social interaction was a treat. “I’ll try to come down after all that’s over though.”

“How’s your mom?  I haven’t seen her in a while.”  Sam asked.  

He sat on the floor next to the bars of his cell, trying to ever so slightly lessen the distance between them.  Nobody else was in the bunker at the moment, so Kaylee couldn’t let herself into the interior without becoming indefinitely stuck.  As a compromise, they settled on eating their meal with the bars between them- not the most pleasant picnic, but all things considered it was still nice.

“It’s been two days.”  Kaylee offered the sense of scale.  She knew he had trouble keeping track of the time.  There were no clocks or natural light in the room and who knew what Lucifer was contributing to the mix.  "She isn’t feeling well, but she’ll be fine… just a little stress.“

"If there’s anything I can do…”  Sam felt beyond helpless- worse, his situation was undoubtedly a contributing factor.

“I’ll let you know.”  Kaylee’s eyes shifted as she briefly debated telling him something.  "Things have been tense between some of the AFE officers & the family during the last month or so- rumor is that Alex has a girlfriend.“

"A girlfriend?”  The thought filled him with a combination of joy and regret that he couldn’t be more involved in his son’s life.  “Do you know anything about her?”

“He hasn’t fessed up, but we think there’s something going on with one of his human bodyguards.  She’s with him whenever he’s topside, even when she’s not on duty.”  Kaylee shrugged.  “And he’s been a little too happy- the flora blooms in Central have started spiking when he’s downstairs.  Brisma has asked that he stay out of the Pits until he gets it under control.”

Sam laughed.  It was just like the Torquean to see the growth of plants in their territory as a negative thing.  The last thing they needed was flowers adorning the walls of their dungeons.  Many of the castes appreciated the growth of plants in Hell, but it had to be done carefully, and creating plants on the rooftops above the dungeons without creating it within required a finesse that Alex wasn’t known for.

“A human?”  Sam smiled at the idea.  "I always thought he’d end up with a demon.“

"It’s just a rumor- Tommy might shake him down for answers pretty soon.  Even if it’s true, it’s not like they’re about to get married.”  Kaylee shrugged while starting to stand up and stretch.  “He’s still a kid.  He can barely sit through a Council meeting.”

“Give him a few years and maybe he’ll calm down a bit.”  Sam stood up in anticipation of her leaving.  It wasn’t like he could hug her, but it seemed like a warm gesture.  “If he spent enough time downstairs, maybe he’d get a little more desensitized to it?”

Ever since he was a toddler, Alex had always gained a small, but noticeable amount of energy while in Hell.  It wasn’t hyperactivity exactly, it was more of an enthusiastic hypersensitivity.  Sam & Kaylee both had the ability to sense Abyssal & changes in Hell from quite a distance, but Alex’s range was about 50% further under reasonable conditions.  When he was around demons or in Hell he was passively receiving a lot more sensory input, which made him distractible at times.  He could rally demons as well as the Knights- better depending on the caste, but he lacked the discipline necessary to rule.  Though, at sixteen years old, that wasn’t a huge surprise.

As a child Kaylee had taken to her lessons on ruling a realm very well.  From a young age she understood that she was next in line for a huge responsibility.  She hadn’t expected for it to fall on her at the age of 19, but by all accounts she carried it well.  Her popularity was the combination of continuing & building upon her dad’ policies, her upbringing in Hell’s public eye, and her presence as a field commander during the fight against Lucifer.  Crowley continued to assist her through the trials of leadership, but as time passed Crowley’s tutoring skills were redirected toward Alex.

“Alex spent a month straight downstairs during those first few months when you weren’t totally lucid.  I don’t think it really helped that much.  And if he does have a human girlfriend I don’t think he’s gonna be taking more than day trips for a long time.”

“Fair enough.”

“Anyway, he doesn’t want to be King.”  Kaylee smiled at the memory of an eight year old Alex running around with a toy sword, plastic breastplate, & a fake magical cloak.  “He wants to- what was it… a Mage-Knight?”

* * *

After they said their goodbyes, Sam watched her leave, treasuring even the bitter sound of her fading footsteps.

"Oh my, she really is growing into quite the stunning creature.”

Sam turned to Lucifer, who was leaning against one of the walls watching the staircase.  He had left them alone during their meal, patiently listening for whatever morsels of information he could find in Kaylee’s stories.  Occasionally, Sam thought about asking his visitors to be less candid with their conversations, but the unspoken agreement between Sam & Lucifer gave him the fairly regular uninterrupted conversations with his family, for which he was incredibly grateful.  Once Ruby, Kaylee, or Alex was gone though, the pair could return to their routine of bickering & angrily ignoring each other.

“Don’t talk about her like that.”  Sam snarled at him.

For as long as they’d been bound to each other, Sam could feel Lucifer’s growing interest in Kaylee & Alex.  The siblings’ resistance to him during Lucifer’s brief campaign had particularly caught his attention.  The Archangel coveted them- not in a sexual way, thankfully Lucifer was asexual.  But Lucifer saw their value and he wanted everything of value he could take.

“I’ll talk about her however I please.”  Lucifer strolled over to Sam, blatantly goading him.  Sam tried to emotionally brace himself for the coming attack, but that almost felt like it was encouraging Lucifer.  “You know how powerful she is- controlling all those fiends in Hell, but she’s been dabbling in the humans’ hierarchy too, hasn’t she? The power she commands is staggering- more than you ever had.”  

“She’s not officially an officer.”  Sam knew that Lucifer wouldn’t care about something like official titles, he wasn’t so dumb as to think that an honorific gave any more power than the will, wit, & connections of the person wielding it.

“But they rely on her counsel & troops.”  Lucifer countered.  “The kind of position she’s in- with one swift strike, how much would come crashing down?”  Sam felt a small thrill emanate from Lucifer.  It wasn’t that Lucifer wanted to hurt Kaylee, he was just delighted to potentially have access to such a vital piece of the infrastructure holding up the world.  “That’s the double edged sword of greatness, and she could be so much more.  You were damage incarnate and you had barely an interest in Earth.  I bet she knows all sorts of critical information.  Do you think she would break under torture?”

“Shut up.”  Sam recoiled from Lucifer in every way possible.  He tried to muddy their connect while Lucifer was imagining ways of torturing Kaylee.  The Archangel didn’t experience a sadistic pleasure from the idea, it was more a curiosity to fill the time… but when he sensed Sam’s discomfort, his interest was piqued.  Figuring out how far he could push Sam was one of his only dynamic forms of entertainment and he took advantage of it whenever possible.  “Or do you think she’d need more complex forms of coercion?”  

“She’s tough.”  Sam tried being conversational in an attempt to defuse the situation, but he knew Lucifer wasn’t taking the consolation prize.

“She’s very stubborn- your whole family is.”  Lucifer conceded.  The non-confrontational answer worried Sam.  “It’s an asset, once worked through initially.  With a little effort, she could be broken and rebuilt into such a force- the humans & the demons, none of them could comprehend her.”

“I won’t let you touch her.”  Sam said with a growing sense of unease at Lucifer’s conviction.  Pacifism was one, but he didn’t want Lucifer to become taken with the idea on some sort of uncontested merits.  Lucifer opted to redirect his aim.

“What about your son- your real son.”  Sam glared at Lucifer’s jab at Tom.  “Alex does have quite the gift, doesn’t he?  His powers are so far along- he has that rebellious streak, but with his lineage that’s to be expected as much as the stubbornness… It’s a shame he’s so taken with the demons.  The natural order is so often overlooked- I don’t blame him for not understanding, luckily that sort of thing can be taught-”

"There’s nothing wrong with demons.”  Lucifer laughed at Sam’s statement.

“Please, there’s everything wrong with them.  They’re literally the worst of the worst, that was the reason I made them.  You of all people should understand that.”

“Well, you underestimate them.”  Sam shot back.

“I know you’ve taken to several of them, but that’s just your flaws showing.”  Sam could feel vindicated amusement rolling off Lucifer at some thought.  “Maybe I should be flattered that you were drawn to my creations even before you knew I existed?  And you think your relationship with the demoness is profound.”

Sam hated when Lucifer talked about their special connection, the bond between vessel & angel.  Part of the problem was that it highlighted inescapable aspects of Sam as an individual.  There had always been & would always be a part of him in some way linked to the genocidal Archangel.  Another issue was that, because of the connection, Lucifer knew mentioning their connection was a button of Sam’s to be pressed for entertainment.  

Lastly, Sam had the strange sense that Lucifer felt threatened by his relationship with Ruby.  She was the only person to make Lucifer retreat from a fight.  Lucifer’s pride had been hurt by a demon- and Ruby wasn’t even an Archdemon or Knight.  But beyond embarrassing Lucifer, she also passively fought him for control of Sam’s heart, mind, & soul.  Without her, or the kids, Sam wasn’t sure he could maintain the will to resist- and Lucifer was well aware of it.

“You don’t know the first thing about Ruby & me.”  Sam glared.  Lucifer could talk all he wanted to about his love of God, but he couldn’t comprehend romantic love or the love of a parent for their child.  To the Archangel it was all chemicals & primal nature. It was below him to accept someone with all their flaws- he’d experienced perfection after all, why should he settle for less?  Of course he’d never be able to truly understand the imperfect strength of Sam’s relationship with Ruby.

“I know everything about you two.  I know how you used to watch her sleep.  I know how nothing made you happier than raising children with her.”  Lucifer paused.  Sam could sense a coming verbal attack… one that also hurt Lucifer slightly.  "And I know how Ruby killed our children, two of them so far-”

“They weren’t your children.”  Sam hadn’t been told about any pregnancies, but it wouldn’t have surprised him, nor did the idea that she would terminate them.  But Lucifer wanted them to have more kids- that was why he went dormant while Ruby was around.  He was trying to allow them privacy in order to encourage reproduction.  There was no doubt in Sam’s mind that Lucifer wanted him to have as many biological children as possible.  Lucifer was very territorial of his vessels, and apparently he had additional strong feelings about hypothetical nephilim.

“Maybe you should tell your brother & Castiel your feelings on angelic parentage?”  Sam cringed at Lucifer’s superficial reversal.  “Do you think that’s why Ruby isn’t seeing you right now?  She’s ill from ending another one?  Do you think Kaylee & Alex know or does she hide it from them?  She could easily have Castiel destroy the evidence when she’s done taking leave of her vessel-”

“You’re not getting to me.”  Sam muttered.  Lucifer was only riling himself up even more.  Ruby & Sam had agreed to stop having kids after Sa’dah’s death.  They wanted to wait until things were more stable, when their children could be safe.  It was a little painful to have each opportunity slip away, but neither of them wanted a child entering this horrible situation.

“They were more than my vessels.”  Lucifer spoke with a vigor that was almost nonexistent in their cell.  It unsettling to witness.  “Do you have any idea how powerful our children would be?”

“It’s not going to happen.”  Sam tried to shut him down before Lucifer became even more worked up.  He could feel their pulse rising.  If they didn’t cool off quickly, their powers would start firing and they’d probably be injured.  “She won’t keep them and you can’t stop her- not without risking her life, and you don’t want to lose the possibility she might change her mind in the future.  It’s a moot point, so just fucking drop it.”

In his frustration Sam had crossed the line.  It wasn’t that Sam thought he’d done something wrong all things considered, but Lucifer took that sort of tone as disrespectful.  Sometimes it was worth a fight- this time it was just a matter of Sam not having the endurance to continue taking the verbal harassment… which was about to turn physical.

Lucifer threw Sam into the wall, then started burning the flesh on his arms & chest.  Sam tried to hurl Lucifer into the bars of the cell, but the pain was so distracting that Lucifer instead just crashed through a small table before hitting the ground.  The Archangel picked up one of the broken table legs and approached Sam.  He rested a sharp edge of the leg over Sam’s stomach as a lingering threat.  Sam didn’t attempt another counterattack.

“Sam, I don’t think you appreciate the impermanence of our situation.  I was trapped before.  We will get out, sooner or later, and when we do one of the first questions will be whether your kids, grandkids, further descendants are alive or if the line will need to be furthered.”  Sam scowled at the thought of what that implied, but didn’t say anything to provoke him further.  Lucifer pressed the table leg hard enough that Sam’s eyes glanced down to check for blood.  “You might hate me- you might want nothing more than to be rid of me, but I’ll find a way out of here and when I do you’ll be begging me to keep you.”

“What?”  The pain faded to the background of Sam’s mind, he was too confused.

“After watching all the agony you’re enduring, don’t you think one of your kids will want to spare you more?  Your family does that compulsively, trading your lives for each other.  Tell me I’m wrong.  Tell me that if I gave them a simple choice, them for you, they wouldn’t take it.  Because I’ll bet that either one would let me in.“

"No.  They wouldn’t fall for that.”  A few tears escaped Sam, partially from the pain, partially from the thought about one of his kids destroying themselves to try to save him.

“Fall for what?”  Lucifer gave a frown of feigned offense.  "Rescuing their father, reuniting their parents, knowing power unlike anything else, ending the war and saving the planet.  Many people would kill for just a fraction of that- given a little time I can make them happily kill for it.“

“I won’t let you.”  Sam’s voice shook.  

He tried not to think about what torture Lucifer would use to instill his lessons- probably similar to what he’d been inflicting in an attempt to teach Sam subservience, but the kids wouldn’t be nearly as prepared for it.  Sam caught glimpses into Lucifer’s mind and was even sometimes able to dish it back at the Archangel.  Everyone else was vulnerable to the more subtle manipulation & abuse.

“The more you fight me, the more you’ll suffer, the more they’ll want to help you.”  Lucifer discarded the table leg and leaned closer to Sam as he described his gambit- words could be far more destructive than a pierced stomach.  “The less you fight, the easier they’ll think it is to control me.  You’ll see, I’ll win.”

"I’ll kill you.”

“You’d kill yourself.”

“I might.”  

“You might.”  Lucifer nodded thoughtfully.  “I guess we’ll both have to see.”


	23. 2031

Scenes to come


	24. 2032

4/15/2032

“Rube, we got a situation up here.”

“What’s wrong?”  Ruby was in her lab in Hell when she got the call from Dean.  She didn’t even wait for his answer before she started blowing out the candles at her current work station.  There was a natural time delay associated with transmissions from Earth and Dean knew to only call her in Hell if it was important.

“Alex put six of our people in the hospital- two of them are critical.”  She could almost hear Dean cringing.  “He’s in the brig at Sioux Falls.  I’m here now, but he got whammied so he’s gonna be out cold for at least another half hour.”

“I’m on my way.”

Ruby found Dean leaning against a wall just outside the brig’s holding area.  He was rubbing his temples, which drew her attention to the greying parts of his hair.  Cas was trying his best to keep Dean young, but when Dean was stressed it was easier to see all the years on him.

“How bad is it?”  She asked while looking around.  The hallway was empty- possibly having been cleared.

“Well, it doesn’t look like we have any fatalities.”  Dean offered with a false smile.

“That good?”  Ruby leaned against the wall next to Dean.  “What the fuck happened?”

“There was some kind of brawl about an hour ago.  Alex is still out, so I haven’t gotten his side of it, but there’s a partial picture.  Four of them were walking down the street one way and he’s walking towards them.  The four stop walking, so he stops walking.  Meanwhile the other two happened to be walking up behind him.  There’s a strange pause where everyone is uncertain about what’s going on and then Alex let’s loose on them.”  

“Well that sounds like bullshit if I ever heard it.”  Ruby muttered.  “He wouldn’t just fight six people for no reason.  I know how stubborn he is, but he hates fighting.”

“Yeah, I think our six victims didn’t do any research before coming up with their party line.”  Dean suggested.  He’d also found the stories suspicious, but he wanted to get Alex’s side before confronting the infirmed soldiers.  It wouldn’t surprise him if the group of six had assumed violence could be causally attributed to Alex because he was part demon, but he didn’t want to immediately voice that particular concern to Ruby.

Dean guided Ruby into the brig to see how her son was doing.  Alex was lying on a cot in an otherwise empty cell.  Any visible injuries he might’ve suffered in the fight were healed by the time Dean arrived.  His clothes were minimal, plain black t-shirt, jeans- but he was missing his shoes & belt.  He wore warded handcuffs.

“Apparently the soldiers that detained him were worried he’d be able to cast with this stuff.”  Dean handed Ruby a plastic tub containing some of Alex’s personal effects.

“Seriously?  They think he’s gonna cast through warded cuffs?  You’ve got some real amateurs working for you.”  Ruby started examining the belongings.  Based on the contents of the tub, when he’d been arrested he was wearing his black leather jacket embroidered with the red blossoms of Hell & the sigil of Lucian.  She glanced at Dean while holding up the jacket.

“You don’t think they fought…”  Dean sighed.  Ruby had gotten onto the same page as him.  He didn’t want to be seriously considering that bleak theory.  He didn’t even want to think about how bad the situation would be if it turned out to be a hate crime.  “Relations with Hell have been pretty good the last few years.”

“Were any of the people on the other side demons?”  Ruby asked.

“No, but that could just mean that demons are smarter than the rest of them.”  She raised an eyebrow, but let the hypophysis drop until they had more intel.

“Three talismans, a heartwood bundle,”  Ruby listed off items that she found in his jacket’s pockets.  She opened a plastic bag of dried plant material and sniffed it.  “weed-”

“No surprise there.”

“A gris-gris.”  Ruby said as she picked up a small leather pouch that was loose in the tub.  She opened it up and examined some Arabic writing.  “You sure this was picked up off him?”

“It might’ve been on the ground, why?”

“It’s a woman’s gris-gris.”  

“Fuck… I’ll find out what happened to Nasrin.  You wait here with him.”  Dean suggested, then left for his second round of questioning.

* * *

Alex groaned and tried to reach up to touch his face, but jerked in surprise at the metal cuffs on his wrists.  He looked at them before rubbing his sore jaw.  As the world started coming back into focus it became clear that he was in a cell.  There was a strange muted quality to his surroundings- it wasn’t just the drab setting, he couldn’t feel the world humming.  It was too quiet.  He looked at the handcuffs again, noticed the warding, & began trying to force them off.

“Be careful or you’ll end up looking more like your dad.”  Alex turned to see his mom & uncle Dean sitting on folding chairs outside of his cell.

“Why am I in here?”  He asked while carefully sitting up.

“We were gonna ask you the same thing.”  Ruby said.  “You beat the shit out of six of our guys.  What happened?”

“It was self-defense.”

“They say that none of them laid a hand on you before you put the first one through a window.”  Dean countered.  “I’m not saying they weren’t dumb enough to pick a fight with you, but you’ve got to give us more to go on.”

“Nasrin & I were going to go get some lunch and a group of guys blocked the street in front of us.  We tried to go another way, but more showed up.  She pulled her pistol & blade.  One was an angel, popped up right on her.  She thought they were going after me, but they were really after her.  So yeah, I locked down flight and laid into them trying to get her out of there.”  Alex’s stomach dropped.  “She’s okay, isn’t she?”

“She’s okay.”  Dean reassured.  “She’s in the Fort Bragg brig.  They’ve got her for a bunch of bullshit charges like resisting arrest-”

“They were trying to arrest her?”  Alex’s brow furrowed.  “They didn’t say- it all happened real fast.”

“What I don’t get is why there’s a restraining order between you two.”

“What?!”  Alex exclaimed.  "I didn’t- She’s my bodyguard.  It’s her job to be with me.“

"Alex, now’s the time to fess up.”  Dean switched into a softer tone.  “She’s not just your bodyguard, is she?”

“Are you two having sex?”  Ruby added, causing Alex to bury his face in his hands.  Dean shot Ruby a glanced at her very direct approach, but didn’t comment.

“What answer gets Nasrin in the least trouble?”  He asked without looking up at them.

“With us, the truth.  With everyone else…”  Ruby frowned at the thought.  “We’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah.”  Alex confessed.  "For a few weeks.“

Ruby pulled the gris-gris bag from her pocket and tossed it through the bars to Alex.  He caught it, realized what it was and sighed.

“Tell me you two are using something more than a gris-gris for contraception.”  Ruby said.  “You know it’s important for you to be safe with this stuff.”

“Fucking a bodyguard’s got to be as safe as it gets.”  Alex joked halfheartedly.

“Jail isn’t the place to be cute.”  Ruby smirked.

“Yeah, we’re being careful.”

“Cause magic isn’t foolproof-”  Ruby started.

“I get that better than anyone.”  Alex murmured.

Alex & Kaylee had both been informed that they were unintended pregnancies as part of the sex talk.  Kaylee had been held up as the lesson of don’t assume it can’t happen.  Alex was the lesson of understanding the contraceptives you’re using and possible interactions.  Neither of them resented their origins, but Alex was certainly tired of hearing the story.

“We’re going to go find out how much of a hornets’ nest this is.  Just sit tight and don’t talk to anyone without back up, okay?”  Dean suggested.

"While I’m stuck in here, if I agree to behave, can they at least take off the cuffs.”  Alex held up warded handcuffs.  "It’s like everything’s dark & muted with them on.  It feels wrong, like I kinda feel sick.“

"How sick?”  Ruby asked and blinked her eyes black to assess Alex.

“I don’t know how to- like a migraine, but almost the opposite.  It’s not too much input, it’s too little.  The emptiness is the problem.”

“We’ll see what we can do.”

* * *

“This has scared everyone.”  Bishop observed as he poured himself another cup of coffee.  He was one of the senior most officers in the AFE, equally importantly he secretly considered himself a friend of the family.

“You’d think this is most frightening for the two people in prison.”  Ruby offered.

“Or the six people in the hospital?”  He countered.  “I’m not saying that this is being handled well- somebody screwed up by creating the restraining order, but now we’re up to our chins in this and we can’t act rashly.”

“Rashly?”  Ruby laughed sarcastically.  “My son’s in prison for no reason.”

“It’s not my fault he nearly killed two of our own.”  Bishop raised his hands in a casually defensive manner.

“He’s not in there because of the fight.”

“Luke, we know you aren’t the enemy.  That’s why we came to you first.”  Dean tried to remind them of their actual obstacles.

Bishop leaned back in his chair.  He was one of the early recruits with a legitimate military background.  Unlike so many people in their complex world, he’d always had a simple pragmatism that Dean & Ruby could both relate to.  He hated bullshit, though in recent years his age had forced him into more of an adviser & diplomat role, which called for something bordering on finesse.  At least they could count on him to be reasonable, if not the unwavering force they’d previously known.

“This situation is new and, like I said, people are scared.”  Bishop framed his understanding of the situation.  “I don’t know who made the restraining order, but I’m not surprised it happened.  Vessel politics get people nervous- especially us aging humans.”

“Worried the kids are gonna mess up your hard work?”  Ruby mused.

“‘Kids these days…’”  Bishop said mockingly, then looked at Dean.  “You know how it is.”

“Don’t lump me in with you guys.”  Dean said unamused by the thought.

“You’re right, you aren’t like them.  You’ve got a personal interest in this and maybe that means that you aren’t first on the list for them when it comes to working on the issue.”

“So other officers are just going behind my back?”  Dean asked.

“You know how much we hate conflict, of course they’re going behind your back.”  Bishop shrugged.  “Maybe if we all get lucky we’ll die off before we have to acknowledge that we made mistakes?”

“Optimist.”  Ruby muttered.  “Well, it’s come to a head.  What kinds of dumb ideas are we up against?”

“I don’t think it’s too nuanced.  He’s vessel to an Archangel and he’s sexual active.  This is the first time we’ve had that sort of risk since…”  Bishop glanced at Dean.

“You don’t have to tiptoe around me.  We all know I can’t have any more kids- hell, I wasn’t much of a risk before my injury.”

“I’m just saying, it seems like a narrow issue.  People are scared of another Archangel vessel popping up who knows where in nine months.”

“Are they just drawing the line at Archangels?”  Dean asked.  “The more this question floats the more likely we’re gonna get the question ‘What about seraphim vessels?’ and more.”

“I haven’t heard anything about the seraphim or any other castes.”

“Yeah, well my money is that the seraphim are gonna hear about this and they’ll want to know the policy for their vessels, and so on.  I cleared his brig, but if Alex spends much longer locked up- and especially for being a vessel, the gossip’s gonna spread through the choirs like wildfire.”

“Same for the demons.”  Ruby added.  “Whoever it was, they picked the wrong vessel to make their target.  It had to be one of the only vessels that’s a demon.  That’s not gonna play well with the black cloud crowd.”

"This isn’t a species thing.”  Bishop speculated.

“If he was human would he still be in the brig?”  Ruby asked pointedly.  “No one ever tried to reign in Dean.”

“That’s not even a real comparison.”

“Yeah, well it’s the only one we’ve got, so get ready to address it anyway.”

“He’s in the brig because he nearly kill a few of our own soldiers.  It’s not because he has black eyes, he’s dangerous.”

“He isn’t dangerous, it was a misunderstanding.”  Dean stated.  "He’ll cooperate if he’s treated half decently.“

"They have him in warded cuffs.”  Ruby clarified.

“To be fair, he could melt through the cell bars in a second without the cuffs.”  Bishops countered.  “It’s a reasonable precaution.”

“The cuffs are hurting him.”

“The cuffs are inconveniencing him- like prison is supposed to.  They’re just keeping him from using magic.”

“Don’t start talking with authority about stuff you don’t understand.”  Ruby warned.  “He passively uses his powers all the time.  It’s cutting off some of his senses.  It’s like keeping him blindfolded, but worse.”

“Fine, I’ll admit that I don’t get how magic works for your kind- demons or witches, but angels & demons can tolerate warded cuffs- witches tolerate warded cuffs.”  Bishop sighed and scratched at his greying beard.  “If it’s a real problem then I’ll try to get some momentum on it, but he shouldn’t get special treatment just because of who his family is.”

“It’s not special treatment.”  Ruby tried to cut back on any hostility in her voice.  “He’s different than humans or demons- they’re affecting him differently.”

“Okay-”  Bishop was interrupted by a knock on the office door.  Anael entered, then closed the door behind her.

“The situation with Alex is a problem.”  Anael offered in lieu of a greeting.

“Fuck, how did you hear about it?”  Ruby groaned.

“It’s on pirate radio.”

“How much time do you think we have before Hell finds out?”  Dean asked Ruby.

“None.”

* * *

“I’m getting a lot of pressure to request that Alex be extradited to Hell.”  Kaylee was on speakerphone in Anael’s office.  It was agreed that the inner circle should have a strategy talk before calling an official meeting among all the senior officers.

“We’ve been hearing that idea floated up here too.”  Ruby confirmed.

“Half of the officers hate the idea because they think he’s gonna get off without even a slap on the wrist.  The other half are happy about him being stuck downstairs for awhile because they know that’ll keep Nasrin out of the picture.”  Dean explained.

“If the demons want to punish their own, that’s their prerogative.  We’ve made that accommodation since our initial alliance.”  Rachel offered.

“He’s part human too.”  Dean noted.  “Anyway, sending him to Hell creates a million new problems.”

“Speaking of Hell related problems,”  Kaylee interjected.  “In any official capacity, Crowley’s gonna be the one representing Hell on this.  If I don’t publicly recuse myself it’s just gonna make more drama.”

It was bad enough that she also technically held rank in the AFE.  She was known for having a finger in every pie, which often helped diplomatically, but occasionally hurt.  This whole situation screamed conflict of interest.

“Ignoring the political complications for a moment, what’s a standard punishment in Hell for his charges?”  Cas asked.  “Is there a practical problem with Hell or is it just the appearance of nepotism that we have to be concerned with?”

“He hasn’t really done much that would show up on our books- related to this incident, the rest of his life we won’t even touch.”  They could hear Kaylee flipping through pages.  “Yeah, he had some wrathful violence, but it wasn’t premeditated and he was trying to protect Nasrin.  It’s a really minor infraction.  Even if one of the guys he beat up dies-”

“They’re all expected to live.”  Dean reminded her of the prognosis.

“Hell doesn’t take a snapshot in time when you get sentenced.  If you start a domino effect of shit, you suffer for it.  That’s part of why Hell is intrinsically unpleasant, causality’s a bitch.”

“Okay, so what’d he be looking at if he was anyone else?”  Dean shrugged off the impractical lecture.

“That’s a whole other problem, if he was anyone else and we had jurisdiction on him he’d already be dead.  Our whole scale for non-harvest punishment assumes the prisoner will survive nearly anything short of me executing them.”  Kaylee muttered some Abyssal under her breath.  “I’d have to consult with advisors, but who’s gonna want to torture the prince of Hell?  We all respect order, but nobody wants to to put their ass on the line by holding the whip.”

“You don’t make penance anymore, do you?”  Ruby asked.

“Please, you put Lucifer & Alex in a popularity contest down here, it’s a landslide.  The Luxia are shitting themselves as we speak.  No one down here wants to do it.”  Kaylee sighed.  “If it’ll finish this thing I could do it, but only if we need to- as is I can’t justify it on the merits.”

“You’re not gonna have to do that-”  Dean started to reassure his niece.

“I’m the end of the line down here.”  Kaylee spoke firmly.  “Someone has to keep order if that’s what it comes to.  Hell can’t give out free passes.”

“This is probably a moot point.  Many of our angels will protest any form of corporal punishment.”  Anael warned. “Most of the sceadugenga already want to break him out.”

“Please tell me that cooler heads are keeping them in check?”  Dean groaned.

The political significance of the sceadugenga breaking Alex out of jail wasn’t lost on anyone.  The entire choir had been imprisoned by the AFE during Lucifer’s campaign and over half of them had been freed by Alex at the Battle of Grand Junction.  Since then the sceadugenga had been particularly fond of Alex and to some proximate extent demons.  The choir’s multifaceted disgust with the current situation may have been representative of many factions’ feelings, however the sceadugenga were more prone to drastic & rebellious measures.

“Some of the virtues that were at Grand Junction are working to calm them, but the longer this goes the worse it’ll become.”  Rachel advised.

“Neither of them did anything extraordinary under those circumstances.”  Radomir, Hael’s widower commented.  “They should serve a week at most and then we all can get on with our lives.  We have bigger problems than some brawl, I don’t care who it is.”

“The fight doesn’t matter.  It’s the ‘why’ that matters.  This whole restraining order is ridiculous.  Nobody gets to send our army into somebody’s bedroom.”  Ruby looked around the room.  “I’m pretty sure every one of us has had sex in violation of some backward law or edict.  We can’t let this thing set some precedent for all vessels getting clamped down on.”

“I’m not saying it, but they’re gonna say it-”  Bishop chimed in.  “There’s danger leaving the vessels unregulated.  You’ve got to be ready to talk about the harm-”

“You want to talk about harm?”  Asked Mahem, a Crossroads demon, who oversaw half of the AFE’s intraplanar contracts.  “My girlfriend is a vessel.  If Nasrin gets exiled, what’s to stop someone from trying to reassign me back to Hell?  Surely I can read provisions just as well in the depths? -And she doesn’t even want to host Isocael.  Her brother’s fine with it, but he’s infantry- if he gets killed without having kids and Isocael’s current body takes too much damage, what then?  Are they gonna force her to say yes to the angel or a kid?”

“Mahem, we hear you.”  Ruby tried to reassure.  

“I like Isocael, I do.  But if I didn’t, I’d kill zir rather than risk it.”  Mahem’s voice shook, caught somewhere between anger & shame.  “Nobody’s dead yet, but if this goes wrong it’s going to go bad fast.  Demons, we… we’ve worked too hard to get our families for someone on our own side to take them away now.”

“We all have.”  Rachel agreed as she touched her barely noticeable belly, which contained her second child.

Dean & Cas looked at each other.  Ever since they’d had Dylaniel, they’d known that their child would be the subject of debate.  He’d face environments that weren’t prepared to accept him and thus provoke change that could be painful & potentially dangerous.  But now, their child wasn’t the only one in danger- hundreds of kids, maybe a thousand adults, were suddenly aware of their exposure for the first time.

“No one is going to take our partners or our kids.”  Dean said with conviction.  “Alex’s imprisonment is purely symbolic, we could get him out in seconds.  The reason we aren’t is because we can’t solve all our problems with a coup.”

“Hundreds of angels were imprisoned when Lucifer was free.”  Anael reminded them all of the real harm that had once been done by their people against their people.

“It was horrible, but this time it’s different.”

“Because this threat isn’t imminent?”  She asked Dean.

“No, because over half their army is waiting to see how much dignity a single vessel is going to get.”  Dean sighed.  “We lost too much of our leadership in the fight with Lucifer.  If we start undermining what structure we do have, it’ll fall apart.  We need to give everyone an out.”

“Let’s hope they take it.”  Kaylee commented.  “If not… I’ve got 100,000 ready to go anywhere you need them at a moment’s notice.”

“100,000 troops, you’re serious?”  Bishop asked, alarmed by the massive & undoubtedly mobile force.

“Hell is serious.”

* * *

Ruby returned to the brig to visit Alex.  There were about fifty demons and sceadugenga angels milling about the street outside.  Inside the brig she found Tora & Salviel standing guard by his cell, but she noted that they were watching for outside threats, not trying to keep Alex in.  Tom sat on the floor outside the cell, playing a game of chess through the bars with his little brother.  Ruby briefly squeezed Tom’s shoulder before hugging Alex as best she could with the bars in her way.

"Are they gonna let me out?”  Alex asked as he got up to stretch his back.  There were shadows forming below his eyes and his customary smirk was noticeably absent.  Ruby couldn’t tell if his slightly disheveled appearance was from the stress of the situation or from nearly 20 hours of wearing the warded cuffs.  She wanted to take a pair of bolt cutters to the damn things, but Dean had warned her against doing anything that might jumpstart a breakout.

“Eventually.  The assault charges aren’t really gonna go anywhere and everyone knows it.  They’re just trying to hold you until they can figure out a party line on the whole vessel bloodline thing.”

“It’s my fucking life and they’re arguing about who I get to date!”  Alex paced and hit his cuffs on the wall.  "They won’t even let me out of these things- the humans don’t get it, I can’t feel the world anymore and they think it’s fine.“

The muscles in his upper body tensed.  He struggled like a man bound in a straight jacket for several seconds, then yelled in frustration before falling to his knees.

“Alex, you have every right to be angry, but you need to calm down before you hurt yourself.”

“They locked up Nasrin, locked me up, they took my fucking powers- and they took my wings!”

Ruby noticed Salviel shift uncomfortably at the mention of having his wings taken.  Not being able to manifest his wings was an unexpected side effect of the warding on the handcuffs.  She hoped that none of the angels outside heard him.  The last thing they needed was for pirate radio to broadcast that Alex had, by angelic standards, been maimed.

“Come over here, Lex.”  Tom requested as he scooted closer to the bars.  Alex crawled across the concrete floor on his knees with his bound hands.  When Alex was within arm’s reach, Tom drew him into an embrace and continued to hold his younger brother.  “Nasrin & you are gonna get out.  You’re gonna touch magic again.  You can fly over the damn base if you want.”

“I know it’s tough, but if we don’t resolve this carefully right now it’s gonna make everything harder for you down the road.”  Ruby explained.

“Does dad know?”   Alex asked after taking a few seconds to collect himself.

“Not yet.”  Ruby confessed.  “Once we know how this is going to shake out I’ll tell him, but for now-”

“I get it.”  Alex let her off the hook.  "Where’s Kay?”  

“I asked her to stay downstairs or at home until the vessel issue shakes out some more.”  Ruby hesitated, then added.  “It’s safer that way.”

Ruby suspected that her brothers knew that Kaylee snuck around with guys occasionally.  When she would eat breakfast at the bunker, Kaylee took her birth control pill with her morning coffee.  Despite her casualness at home, it seemed that she’d been discreet enough in public to not catch any ire.  But that didn’t mean that her mere presence on Earth during this mess wouldn’t cause others from taking a closer look at her social calendar.

“What about Dyl?”  Ruby could see Alex calming down and thinking more tactically.

“He’s at home.  There’s… less of a freak out about him.  I don’t know if that’s cause he’s only 13 or if it’s because he’s part angel.”  She admitted.  “I keep hearing that you being part demon has nothing to do with it, but it’s not like anyone’d tell me if it was the case.”

“How’s Nasrin?”

“She’s still in custody.”

“She didn’t do anything wrong.”  Alex sighed, tired of having to keep saying it.

"We have people with her to make sure she’s being taken care of.”  Ruby reassured.  "Listen, the last thing we want is for her to be redeployed to some bottomless pit or sent off to some human city.“

"I’d find her.”  The romantic sentiment reminded Ruby painfully of Sam.  Alex even had the same paradoxically sad & hopeful puppy expression.

“Alex, you going to a human city…”  Ruby couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Alex without his horns.  She honestly wasn’t sure if he’d put away his horns while visiting a human city.  He could be diplomatic, but the eyes & horns had become an essential part of his identity over the years.  The idea of hiding them to accommodate conservative sensibilities might be so offensive to him that he’d accept the danger it might cause.  "We want to keep her where we can watch her to make sure she’s safe.“  

"Safe?”  Alex sat up in renewed alarm.  “You think someone’d kill her for dating me?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe?  If it wouldn’t cause a riot at this point.”  She didn’t even know who was trying to screw up the relationship, let alone how strongly they felt.  “But if I was trying to be the bad guy here, I’d just quietly sterilize her.“

Alex’s face went slack at the thought.  He clearly hadn’t been considering the seriousness of the situation.  

"They can’t do that!”

“I had Anael give her a once over- Nasrin’s fine, and we have guards protecting her.”  Ruby reached through the bars to hold his hands.  “There’s gonna be a hearing on the whole thing.  No one expects the actual fight to be discussed for more than a few minutes, but your relationship is gonna come up.  We need to make it obvious that restricting vessels’ personal lives is dangerous- but not in an us threatening them way.  It’s fear that makes people do stupid stuff.  They need to be able to trust you, so you need to keep it together, even if some things are said that offend you.  You understand me?”

“Yeah.”  He nodded solemnly.  “I understand.”

* * *

As Alex was being escorted into the meeting room where the hearing was being held, he saw Nasrin.  Her pale green shirt and khaki pants were scuffed with dirt, presumably from the fight a day earlier.  Unkempt black hair hung around her dim face.  She was also handcuffed and being escorted out of the opposite side of the room by a guard.  

“Nas!”  Alex called out to get her attention.  

He ducked down while twisting his torso to break the grip his guard had on him.  After dodging a lunge, he leapt onto a chair, then a table in order to clear a half wall separating the room.  He stumbled while landing, but managed to stop himself from falling over entirely.

Nasrin elbowed her guards off of her and ran to him.  He put his cuffed wrists over her head, then pulled her to him in a hug.  Her hands cupped his cheeks, unable to embrace him in return thanks to her own bindings.

“I’m sorry.”  She said as a tear rolled down her cheek.  He wanted to wipe away the tear, but couldn’t reach it, so instead he pulled her closer to him and she buried her face in his chest.

“Don’t worry.”  He whispered.

One of the guards grabbed his arms.  Alex glared at the man and started trying to figure out how to headbutt him while still holding Nasrin, but Ruby stepped in.  She pried the guard’s hand off her son and stared daggers at him.  Unlike Alex & Nasrin, she had her full range of movement.

“Back off before something regrettable happens to you.”  Ruby pressed the guard’s index & middle fingers backwards, just short of them breaking before releasing him.  She looked up at the panel of senior officers.  “This is ridiculous.  There’s no point in keeping them from being in the same room.  It’s not like they’re gonna have sex right here.”

Despite his eyes being solid black, Ruby suspected that Alex rolled his eyes at her comment.  Nesrin looked away from everyone in embarrassment, then Alex started whispering reassurances to her.

“This hearing is about an assault on several soldiers who were acting in accordance-”  One of the officers started.

“Let’s cut the crap.  Somebody- maybe one or more of you, doesn’t want them to fuck.  That’s why somebody made up a restraining order to keep Nasrin away, but they didn’t consider the massive can of worms that it just unleashed.  Now we have to get this settled before it blows up-  So let’s all be adults about this and talk frankly.”  Ruby paused for a moment to see if anyone was going to interrupt her, but instead they gave her the floor.  “Just because he’s a vessel doesn’t mean he’s property- he’s a person with the same rights as anybody else.”  

“Having to adhere to social rules doesn’t make you property.  There’s a tradeoff between doing whatever we want and acting in a way that keeps us all safe.”  

“If he’s desperate for a partner, there are many better candidates.”  A second officer suggested while trying to avoid making eye contact with Nasrin.

“She’s his girlfriend.”  Ruby actually had no idea how the couple categorized their relationship.  “It’s not like he’s indiscriminately fucking half a base.”

“Is it really wise to allow- it’s just he’s a vessel to Lucifer, that line is… problematic.”  Commented a non-vessel human officer on the panel.  There was an audible shuffle in the hall of dozens of people sitting up at the statement.  One of the elephants in the room had been broached.  The question was whether or not anyone dared to address whether vessels would receive different treatment depending on the value of their angel.  

“Fine, you know what, we went there- This isn’t about Alex, it’s about all the vessels, all the nephilim.”  Ruby redirected the discussion away from such a granular analysis.  They needed to stay a larger united front.  “You can’t imprison people for having consensual sex.”

“This is an issue of long term security.  The human population has dropped so much- fifteen years from now we need to have assets available and angels are our heaviest hitters.”  

“You think not having enough unprotected sex is our real problem?”  Ruby jabbed.

“If we don’t figure out some way of controlling this, what’s to stop Heaven from stealing lines?“

"Good judgment.  Let the vessels know what’s at stake and they watch themselves.”  Ruby answered.

“He’s a seventeen year old.  You really expect him to pick a trustworthy partner?”

“Nasrin isn’t properly vetted-”

“What, she’s good enough to trust with his life but not with his sex life?”  Ruby cringed internally at the thought that maybe there were less rigorous standards for his personal safety.

“It’d be different if this was just about sex, but it’s about the future of an Archangel’s bloodline.”

“Alex isn’t get roped into an arranged marriage or whatever you’re proposing.”  Ruby could feel herself starting to raise her voice, so she took a breath before continuing.  “It’s his life and his choice.”

“This isn’t just about controlling the lines, it’s about maintaining order.  If we don’t have rules, then individuals might take matters into their own hands.”

“Is that a threat?”  

“No, it’s a fear.”

* * *

Most of the family sat in antichamber while other people offered testimony that wasn’t directly related to Alex.  Tempers were running high after the first hour and it was decided that there was too much of a chance that an outbursts could hurt the greater issue.  Dean stayed behind to watch all the questioning, ready to object to anything if needed.

Dean quietly sat in the back of the meeting hall watching the testimony for over eight hours.  It seemed like everyone had something to say on the matter of whether vessels & their bloodlines would be regulated.  Half a dozen vessels expressed concern about their personal rights before it was decided that they’d be there all day listening to every single vessel making the same argument.  A few humans & demons warned that there’d be hell to pay if their partners were persecuted.  Several angels said that taking away even part of a vessel’s volition is a breach of their sacred consent-based relationship.  To Dean’s surprise a handful of angels supported some control of the bloodlines, fearful that they would find themselves trapped on Earth without form.

He listened to the testimony, watching the other officers watching him.  Everyone was waiting for him to put in his two cents and everyone knew where he’d come down.  A few years earlier he would’ve carried more political weight than half the panel combined- the AFE was his baby after all, but lately it’d left him behind, propelled forward by its own momentum.  Now he was more an officer emeritus, and he was completely washed out by his own conflict of interest on the subject.  Yet everyone was still waiting for him to share what was surely anger at the imprisonment of his nephew.

After the last speaker went, Bishop gestured, inviting him to come up to the front of the room.  Dean walked up and instead of sitting at the provided table, he leaned against the side of it.  This wouldn’t take long, the day had been too long already.

“I think this is dumb & offensive, but I guess this conversation was inevitable, so I’m not gonna yell or whatever you might be scared of.

I’ve given a lot to our cause: over twenty years of my life, my brother, my niece, my hearing, my body… My son is 13 years old and right now he’s off learning how to kill because collectively he’s been asked to take my place.  He trains at least six hours a day, every single day because he has this terrifying sense of responsibility about his role as The Sword.  And while he’s doing that, you’re all sitting here trying to figure out whether he’s worthy enough for you to let him have that small-.”  Dean shook his head.  “You know what, it isn’t small.  Love made the angels fall.  Having choices and rights- it’s vital.  Dylan’s already given his childhood to this war.  He’s planning to give it his adulthood too.  And you all are sitting around debating making him give more because you don’t know if vessels understand the importance of what’s going on?”

He didn’t have the energy to even humor a reaction.  Without waiting for questions or comments, Dean went to find his family in the other room.  He sat down next to Cas and wrapped his arm around his husband.  His nephews were trying to lighten the mood by joking about scrying on the deliberation.  Nasrin leaned against Alex, trying to sleep to whatever extent possible.  Ruby whispered an ominus conversation with Tora & Joseba on the far side of the room.  

After a few minutes, Bishop fetched everyone for the determination.  Alex was asked to come up front for a few questions.  He stood before the eighteen officer panel with a righteous dignity.

“Are you in love with her?”  Asked one of the officers.

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”  Alex said flatly, causing Ruby to beam with pride and Dean to softly facepalm.  “Isn’t that half the reason we’re here?”

“Fair enough.”  The officer conceded..   “For better or worse, the role of vessels has been brought to the forefront.  You understand that there are many risks involved with not imposing some sort of structure?”

“I accept that risk- you know what, I choose to take that risk.”  Alex forced as much emphasis into his words as was humanly possible.  “I’m going to live with my choices, hers, yours, all of theirs, and you’re going to live with all of ours.  Because we live in this world together and we need each other.  So I’m sorry, but you might have to trust some teenage demon to not fuck everything up- the same way I’m stuck trusting you not to fuck this decision up.”

“You can understand the reasoning behind the concerns we voiced, right?”

“I understand them, but I don’t agree them being the top priority.  You & anyone else can keep trying to reason with me, but some things can’t just be about reason.  It’s about what’s right.”  Alex stood a little taller.  “Earth isn’t Heaven.  Earth isn’t Hell.  Freedom may be a little dangerous, but it’s the best thing Earth has going for it.  Freedom’s worth the risk.”

“You’ll be able to live with the consequences?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

* * *

 

6/01/2032

Dean didn't want to go into the bedroom.  He didn't want it to be true... yet he had to know.  It seemed impossible for the phone call to have been a mistake, but impossibility had never stopped them from believing in something before.  The three guards watched him grimly as he passed them.

There hadn't even been a fight.  Based on the positions of the bodies, Alex had been stabbed in the heart while he was sleeping.  Nasrin had probably woken up when Alex was stabbed since she had partially fallen out of the bed while reaching for her adopted angel blade on the nightstand.  Dean pulled one of the sheets over her naked corpse to give it some modesty, then he circled back to Alex's side of the bed and sat down on the floor.

They'd lost another kid.  Alex wasn’t even 18 years old.  Had this been a traditional war he wouldn’t have even been old enough to enlist.  But this wasn’t some death on a battlefield, this was an assassination.

He'd been found like this five minutes earlier when a ghoul down the block sniffed out a dead body.  Aside from the ghoul and four soldiers, Dean was the only one who knew- well, not the only one.

He forced himself to stand up and examine the bodies.  The stab wounds were the unmistakable three sided pierce of an angel blade.  While it was almost guaranteed that every living angel had one, it was also true that at least two thousand non-angels had them too.  In the 23 years that he'd been fighting angels, Dean had collected over a hundred blades- though he'd given away all but two.

The more telling piece of evidence was the fact that Alex hadn't woken up.  Independent of the fact that there was no motive, the killer probably wasn't a demon because all of The First Light had a knack for sensing demons- especially Alex.  The kid had always been a little more Abyssal than Kaylee or Sa'dah, and probably could’ve noticed a demon sneaking up on him even if he was asleep.  So the killer was likely an angel, human, or non-human.

Dean touched his face to make sure he wasn't crying, then called for two of the guards to come in.  There was going to be a huge amount of work to do and time was of the essence.

"I want extra security on all our high value assets- and find out where my niece is."  Dean instructed the first guard.

"Yes, sir."  Replied the guard, but before she could leave Dean gave her another task.

"Also, I want a current headcount for the base and the best we can get for an hour ago.  Send word to the other bases that I want records of every arrival & departure for the last three hours.  Lockdown travel as best you can."  Dean instructed a guard, then hastily added. "Don't tell anyone that he's dead... It's need to know."

"I- I understand."  She nodded sadly, they left.

Dean returned to Alex's body and examined the injury in more detail.  The entry wound was large enough that the blade had probably gone in to the hilt.  He couldn't bring himself to check for the exit wound.  Upon closer inspection, tiny blue veins spread a quarter of an inch outward from the wound.  

He clenched his fists and struggled to not yell or break anything in his anger.  It wasn’t common, but he’d seen the little blue veins before.  They were a telltale sign of a destruere curse on a weapon, a popular tool in the battle of controlling vessel bloodlines.  Alex’s soul had been destroyed upon his death.  It wasn’t clear if it was done in order to prevent one of Lucifer’s vessels from potentially being resurrected or to prevent his soul from reaching either Heaven or Hell.  No matter what the reason, he was gone, completely & forever.

Sa’dah’s status was still presumed to be a prisoner of Heaven, which was a bittersweet thought- mostly bitter.  Maybe someday her soul could be rescued, either to be properly resurrected or, more likely, allowed to rest.  But Alex… The outright destruction of a soul was irreparable damage that brought the crime to a whole new level.   

"Call in Kushiel.”  Dean instructed the second guard through gritted teeth.  “I need this angel blade identified."

"Sir, I doubt that an assassin would be so careless as to use their own blade."  

"It's still a lead."

* * *

Alex's death was bound to cause tension between the demons of the AFE and the rest of it.  He was considerably more open about his demonic nature than Kaylee.  Since Sa'dah's death, by default his eyes were black & his horns were out.  It was both his tribute & rebellion.  His Abyssal pride had made him incredibly popular with Hell aligned demons and rumor was that even Lucifer's demons had a soft spot for him.

Sa'dah's death had caused literal riots both on Earth & in Hell.  Demon-human relations temporarily fractured when word had gotten out that Hell's youngest princess had been killed by a mob of humans.  The AFE & leadership of Hell had pushed the message that the Templars were to blame, but some of the demons failed to see the distinction between humans backing Heaven & the humans who withheld support for the alliance.

On the other side, the neutral humans were outraged at the destruction of one of their cities.  The deaths of over seven million humans demanded drastic action, but the question was what could be done.  Apart from a dozen people from Sam's inner circle, no humans actually knew what had happened in Los Angeles.  Yes, a princess of Hell was dead, but was it Heaven or Hell that through the big punch?  Hell blamed Heaven and Heaven blamed Hell.  Sam had buried the guilt he'd had, to be hidden away lest the humans realize what really happened.  In the end, all but two human territories banned all non-humans & humans that supported any side.  Supply contracts were temporarily halted and borders were tightened.

It took at least a year to repair most of the damage that had resulted from Sa'dah's death, but Alex's would be another catastrophic blow.  The fact that he had been killed within a camp, would undoubtedly start a metaphorical witch hunt.  Using an angel blade on him could've been a move that was either cautious, indicating that the killer wasn't certain that he was mortal, or the angel blade was a frame up.  Both scenarios were unpleasant, either their security had dropped the ball so badly that an outsider had done the deed or it was someone within.

As he was trying to wrap his head around the murder and its implications, Ruby arrived.  She ran into the room, then collapsed by the bed.  Her hands couldn’t quite reach Alex’s arm before they fell weakly to the floor.  It was all she could do to just hold herself up.  She'd gone through too much in a few short years.

Dean knelt down next to Ruby and hugged her.  After a moment she turned to him, then wrapped her arms around his neck.  He could feel her crying on his shoulder.  Part of him wanted to stay strong, but he just didn’t have the energy to pretend.  A few tears broke free from him as held her, imparting & finding whatever comfort he could.

"I know, Rube."  He patted her back.  

“Why?”  She asked, face still resting on his shoulder.

“Maybe there was just an opening- maybe they panicked over Nasrin…”  

Aside from Tom, who wasn't a vessel, the kids weren't supposed to date... or more accurately, have sex.  It'd been an unexpected political topic, but many of the power players in the AFE had made it their business.  Nobody wanted to risk the bloodlines getting out of control, which became a real possibility once the kids became teenagers.

It was a closely kept secret that Kaylee snuck around occasionally, but Alex wasn't so subtle.  He wasn't carelessly running around having one night stands- unlike Kaylee he didn't have complete control over a hypothetical unplanned pregnancy.  But a few weeks earlier he began publicly dating a former bodyguard.  There had been an emergency meeting of the AFE commanders when word got out that Nasrin was spending the night in Alex's quarters.

There was a heated argument, that mostly consisted of Alex refusing to end up in some sort of arranged coupling.  His family backed his decision, but there were all sorts of people who disapproved of his choice.  Heaven generally feared the prospect of having any more of Lucifer's vessels in play.  The conservative members of the AFE command disliked potentially entrusting Lucifer's bloodline to a 28 year old sharpshooter who had never known her dad.  They'd rather have Alex paired up with a seraphim or some other high choir vessel- someone from a more coveted lineage.

The idea that Alex might've been killed over his sex life was unnerving on multiple levels.  It felt like such a waste on the surface, yet looking at the big picture maybe it could be worth killing over.  Dean didn't think there was a particular danger of Dylaniel getting into a similar situation, but he made a note to talk to his son about the issue.  He was only 12, but the subject should be covered before the mysterious nephilim version of puberty strikes.

“I’ll tell Sam.”  Her voice was pained.

He didn't envy her.  Sam was sure to be a wreck & who knows what he'd do.  With a pang of guilt, Dean thought that maybe it was better that Sam wasn't in charge of Hell.  The loss of Alex while Sam was ruling might very well have resulted in Hell pulling out of Earth for real, or worse laying into Earth with unbridled aggression.

Kaylee would obviously be devastated, but she'd grown up taking loss for granted.  She didn't seem to have lofty dreams of being able to keep everyone safe.  The thought that that was somehow comforting made him cry again.

* * *

 

6/02/2032

Ruby stopped at the top of the stairs down to Sam’s cell.  She rested her forehead against the door and took a deep breath.  Telling him about Alex’s death was the last thing she wanted to be doing, but it would be its own sort of cruelty to leave him in the dark.  He’d find out eventually, Alex had been one of the only three people that Lucifer allowed to visit Sam.

She’d needed about a half hour to collect herself enough to make it home.  Kaylee was safely in Hell.  Tom was working a job in Accra, but at her request to come home he said that he’d wrap things up within four hours.  Cas & Dylaniel were visiting Hael & her daughter, Miroslava.  Dean had undoubtedly told Cas for security reasons, but she questioned whether Dean & Cas would risk interrupting their son’s time with Miro.

Truth be told, Ruby was grateful they were alone.  She didn’t want anyone walking in or watching them on a monitor.  Sam deserved some dignity in a vulnerable moment like this.

Lucifer greeted her- Lucifer seemed to always be in control by default.  She didn’t think any less of Sam for it, fighting Lucifer for dominance had to be exhausting.

“I need some time with Sam.”  Her voice wavered with discomfort, but her voice was determined.  She clearly composed out of some necessity.

Lucifer & Sam could both hear the distress in her voice.  Lucifer withdrew slightly out of curiosity.  When his face softened, she knew it was Sam.  The lack of an argument was a relief, though it just meant she had to tell him all the sooner.  She didn’t care if no one was there to let her out, she wanted Sam to hold her, so she let herself into the cell.  

Ruby hugged him and he barely got him arms around her before she broke.  He helped hold her up, worried that she’d fall, then walked her to the bed.  Once she was sitting on the edge of the bed, he knelt down to look her in the eyes.  He wiped a tear from her cheek and kissed her softly.  Sam didn’t need to know what had happened to know that she needed the tenderness that only he showed her.

“What is it?  What’s wrong?”  His face had lost some color.  She could see him imagining the unpleasant possibilities.

“Alex.”  She couldn’t say it at first, her lips just quivered.  "He’s dead.“

Sam buried his face in her lap.  His hands weakly clung to her legs.  A small bookcase flew across the room, breaking into pieces on the concrete wall.  Ruby flinched, but realized the hostility wasn’t directed at her.  Lucifer was apparently absorbing the loss in his own way.  Ruby ran her fingers through Sam’s hair as he cried and Lucifer destroyed half the objects in the cell.  When she was confident that Lucifer wasn’t about to hurt them, she slowly gripped Sam’s arms and pulled him up to her.  They laid down on the bed, clutching each other.

After an unknown stretch of time, Sam noticed Ruby shaking.  At first he thought it was from grief or anger, but he could see her breath forming small clouds.  Lucifer was in a rage had turned inward, a now quiet seething that was almost more concerning than smashing furniture, but Sam wasn’t anywhere near prepared to interact with the Archangel.  Sam just held Ruby tight and raised his body temperature to warm her.

When Sa'dah died, he hadn’t been there for Ruby as much as he would’ve liked.  He’d been so overwhelmed.  His sadness had blinded him and his hatred had drawn him into dangerous thoughts.  This time though, he didn’t have a war to run or all those conflicting interests.  His entire life was contained to a twenty by twenty foot cell and the three- two people who could stand to be around him.

"Where is he?”  Sam asked.  He hoped it was Hell, as cruel as that might be, but if it was Heaven at least maybe Sa'dah wouldn’t be alone anymore.  When Ruby didn’t say anything, he held her tighter.

“The blade was cursed.  He’s just gone.”  It was the real & total loss of their son.  He began crying again and it was Ruby’s turn to kiss gently.  Reflexively he thought that the total loss of Alex was the same absence that would happen if Ruby died.  Knowing firsthand the feeling of that sort of loss… he wanted to just hold Ruby, laying there in the timeless safety of his cell forever.  Yet their family needed them- their family needed her.

“What happened?”  He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know, but he needed to know.

“He was stabbed in his sleep- It was fast.”  She added as cold comfort.  “Nasrin was with him.”

“She’s dead too?”  Sam had never met her, but for months Alex had told him enamored stories about the tough as nails & sharp witted beauty.  It was hard for Sam to not be fond of the woman who could make his son feel so blessed in such a bleak world.

“Yeah, she tried to fight, but it happened too fast and she was unarmed.”  

“Who did it?”  Sam could hear Lucifer ask the same question.  Unlike Sam, Lucifer couldn’t care less about Nasrin.  He was consumed with the thought of killing whoever had taken one of his vessels from him.  Personally, Sam liked the idea of unleashing Lucifer on the killer.

“We’re still looking.  Probably a human or angel.  Dean & Anael are running the investigation.  I tried to get Dean to stop & grieve with the family- Anael is more than capable, but…”  She was sure Dean blamed himself.  He’d never fully forgiven himself for the call to separate the kids before Sa’dah’s death.  The fact that Alex had died on an AFE base had to be crushing.

“The killer needs to be taken alive.”  Sam whispered, but Lucifer helped get the words out.  Sam was still in shock & overwhelmed by the news, but Lucifer was more interested in helping to exact cold vengeance… and Sam wasn’t exactly opposed to letting him take charge of those thoughts.

“Dean knows.”  Ruby reassured.  “Once the AFE is done interrogations, Hell will get any prisoners.”

It was going to be a good will gesture between the AFE & Hell.  Human, angel, demon, or something else- all of Hell would want to tear the killer apart.  It wasn’t about justice, it was about wrath.  Maybe some larger retaliation by could be prevented, but Hell was rarely a place for mercy and the killer would receive none.

“Can you ask Shola to keep an eye on Kaylee?”  Sam asked as a whole new batch of worries started creeping into his mind.  “And Tom’s going to be devastated- oh god Dylan-”

“Stop.”  Ruby held his cheeks so that he was looking in her eyes.  “Dean, Cas, & I can take care of Tom & Dyl.  I’m sure Kaylee will want to see you- you can help her too.  But you need to listen to me, sooner or later you’re gonna have to face a stretch of time down here alone and I can’t stand the thought of you torturing yourself with grief.  You need to take care of yourself.”

“I need to take care of my family.”

“Then take care of me.”  She kissed him, deeply that time.

* * *

12/15/2032

Ruby knocked at the door, then entered when there was no answer.  The fourth floor studio apartment was dimly lit & hazy.  The smell of spices & grilled meat from the nearby market penetrated everything.  She had to kick a mason jar of dehydrated crickets out of her way in order to fully enter the room.

Tom was lounging on a shabby single bed.  He only wore the lehenga portion of a turquoise saree, revealing his ever-growing tattoo collection.  An ashtray on the nightstand held the remnants of several joints.

"You might wanna consider at least warding your front door."  Ruby suggested as she closed the door behind her and inspected the doorjamb.

"Nobody's looking for me."  Tom countered as he sat up.

"I was looking for you."  Tom shrugged apologetically for not considered her.

"If you'd called first, I would've cleaned up."  Tom hastily brushed some plastic bags of spell components off the only chair in the apartment.

"Looks like you've been having fun."  Ruby observed.  She picked a bra up off the floor, then checked the size.  It was a 34D, which meant it was a woman's.  On the rare occasion that Tom wore a bra, he wore a 42B.  "Cinderella coming back?"

"Deepi."  Tom corrected with a grin.  "Hopefully- I'm not sure though.  She knows that the rent's paid for two weeks, then I was figuring I'd head southeast a bit.  Maybe stop by Sri Lanka before checking out Indonesia."

"Fly by night or do you actually like her?"

"She plays cricket, digs magic, & doesn't judge me- You know the west needs to get in on the whole third gender thing."  Tom starts rolling a joint.  "We have angels & demons with all their variations- humans need to step up our game."

"Aside from philosophizing about cisnormativity while stoned out of your mind, what've you been up to?"

"I've picked up a few new tricks with the craft, but mostly I'm seeing what humanity has to offer."  His lips curled into a smile as he lit the joint.

"Should I be expecting any grandkids?"  Ruby crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"God, I hope not."  Tom chuckled while taking a hit, then he held the joint out toward his mom, but she didn't move to accept it.

"Have you visited Kali?"  Ruby asked.

"Not yet."  He confessed.

"You're in her domain.  The least you could do is stop in at one of her temples."  Ruby leaned forward, imploringly.  "I know she's tough as nails, but a little support never hurt."

"She'd rather see you- you could bring Dyl, she'd like that."  He avoided Ruby's eyes.

"If she got to know you-"

"I bet she would like me... especially now."  Tom mused.  He was a smart guy.  He knew perfectly well that he was self-destructing.  He just wasn't sure why he should care.

"Tommy, you should come home."

"Did someone else die?"  He knew it was a cheap shot and not the tasteless joke he'd attempted to disguise it as.

"No."  She wasn't remotely amused.

It had been six months since Alex was murdered.  Tom had stayed with the family until Kaylee & Dylaniel seemed emotionally stable, then he took off to go find himself... or to get even more lost under false pretenses.  He didn't have centuries of work to distract him like Kaylee and he didn't have Dylaniel's... discipline?  

Before Alex's death, Tom had been the first choice for taking over one of Morrison's orphaned coven.  He knew the craft like the back of his hand and was charismatic enough to be a leader if he chose to, but when his little brother died he abruptly quit.  Some of the fire inside him died with each of his siblings.

"I like traveling."  Tom said in defense of his four month and counting world tour.

"You like getting shitfaced & fucking."  Ruby corrected.

"In scenic locations."

"I'm not asking you to be a shut in, just visit. We all miss you- your dad & I are worried about you."

"Like dad even knows I'm gone."  Tom muttered while flicking the ash off his joint.

"Don't be a dick.  I know that you're hurting, but don't turn that around on the people that care about you.  If he could be here he would, but he can't."  Ruby reached into her pocket and withdrew an envelope.  She stood up, handed Tom the envelope, then kissed his forehead.  "I'm not gonna bust your ass over this.  Just know that you have a home."

She patted his cheek, then made to leave.  He quickly got up and hugged her before she disappeared.  Tom wasn't quite as big as Sam, but he still dwarfed her.  

After she left he stared at the envelope for several minutes.  It'd been almost five months since he'd had any sort of communication from his dad.  Their interactions were mostly one-sided thanks to Lucifer.  Tom could send messages to Sam, but Lucifer hated Tom and made it nearly impossible for Sam to communicate with him.  It was a painful complication, which meant the only real way for Sam to talk to Tom was via writing that was checked by a third person.

"Tommy,

I wish I could tell you this in person, but I wouldn't ask you to see me.  I don't want to hurt you anymore than you are already.  I know that you feel helpless, like you've failed them or failed us.  You can't run away from pain because it lives inside us.  The only way to fight it is to embrace it, try to understand it, and use its lessons going forward.  

I'm not saying there was a way to stop what happened to Alex, just that I regret not being there for him more.  Don't live your life begging for regrets.  See the world before it's gone, but don't do it just to run away.  Don't run from your life, run to it- whatever that is & whatever you do.

We love you and always will.  
Love, dad."


	25. 2033

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	26. 2034

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	27. 2035

11/12/2035

“What about Lailah?”  Ruby suggested as she tossed the folder across the table to Dylaniel.  He opened it up and began reviewing its contents.  "She’s as smart as they come and likes kids.“

"Would she even be allowed to help in our child’s upbringing?”  Dylaniel asked while flipping through the pages of her service record.  "For that matter, would I?“

Ruby & Cas exchanged an uncertain look that went unseen by Dylaniel.  He had a reputation for being very capable… but not in his personal life.  He’d never dated and the number of people who considered themselves his friend may have been in the single digits.  It’s not that people disliked him- though some did, it was more that he was unapproachable.  Allied demons & humans had no idea what to make of him, since he’d only started doing anything more than observing on missions a year earlier.  The fallen angels mostly fawned over him to an extent that prevented normal interaction.

Beyond that, there was a small minority of the fallen angels who hadn’t entirely accepted nephilim.  Their reasons for falling had nothing to do with love or compassion towards humans, so the stigma against nephilim quietly lived on in them.  Dylaniel was aware of them, but nowadays he rarely gave them anything more than a cold glance.

An unspoken agreement to ignore each other had been reached after Dylaniel was pushed too far a few years earlier.  A fallen angel had made the mistake of referred to him as ‘soiled grace’ within earshot.  If it had been any other day Dylaniel might’ve let it slide, but it had been the anniversary of Sa'dah’s death immediately following Alex’s.  Calling the altercation a fight would’ve been generous to the angel.  Before anyone could pull him off the angel, Dylaniel had broken eight of the fallen angel’s bones including both legs.  As he was being escorted away, Dylaniel advised zir vessel to keep his angel in check to prevent them both from getting killed.  The not-so-veiled threat spread through the gossip network, most notably among the vessels of anti-nephilim angels.

He didn’t blame his parents for leaving him in the brig to serve his full six week sentence.  They hadn’t wanted to brand him with the additional stigma of receiving special treatment.  For his part, he took the punishment as a lesson to keep a cooler head.  He’d need to be able to shoulder more hatred if he was going to survive in the field as long as his dad.  At fourteen years old, he’d beaten Kit’s record for being the youngest prisoner of the AFE.

Three years later, he still held that record.  But he had another milestone in mind.  Seventeen years and eight months had been the record for longest surviving nephilim.  Currently, he was two months short of that goal.  That was the record he was striving for.  And every day he got closer to the morbid achievement seemed to underscore his mortality.  Hence the recent push for him to reproduce.

"Would you want to raise a child?”  Cas asked.  He had found the experience of raising Dylaniel to be equal parts confusing & rewarding.  He was very proud of the man he’d helped bring into the world & raise, despite not being as vocal about it as Dean.

“Probably not…”  Dylaniel confessed.  "I’d be curious to know about any kids I’d have.“

"Know about or get to know?  There’s a big difference.”  Ruby pointed out as he slowly close the file.  His lips thinned, then looked up at them.

“I don’t want to do this.”  He slid the file across the table to be with the other ten candidates.

“Dyl, I know you don’t want to, but it’s just part of the game.  I’m sure that whoever you pick will try to make it as quick & painless as-”  Ruby stopped herself.  "It’s not actually painful, I mean by default- if you’re into that kind of stuff, more power to you-“

"I don’t want to talk about my sex life.”  Dylaniel crossed his arms.

“Maybe try not to think of this part of it as your sex life? It’s like any sort of physical exercise.”  Ruby suggested and looked to Cas for help.

“Dylaniel, sex is a normal part of mortal life.  It’s nothing to be embarrassed about-”  Cas added.

“I’m not embarrassed.”  Dylaniel stated flatly.  "I’m just not interested.  No amount of duty or normalcy is going to change what I want from life.“

Dylaniel got up from his chair, then left the room without looking back.  Apart from the Ruby, Cas, & himself, the bunker was quiet.  Dean was undoubtedly bogged down in training the dozen people necessary start replacing him as he transitions to a more adviser role.  Kaylee was probably in Hell or shadowing Dean.  And as of two days earlier, Tom was reinforcing the abjuration magics at the São Jorge base.

* * *

 Dylaniel walked through the empty halls to his room.  He grabbed his iPod before laying down on his bed.  After starting up Dark Side Of The Moon, he tried to relax… it was difficult.  He knew what the stakes were, but he also knew what they were asking of him.

After the population of the virtues choir fell below 50%, the AFE’s research department began studying nephilim & vessels in more depth.  One of the experiments was to determine if in vitro fertilization could be used to create them.  If possible, it could potentially make a huge difference in the populations.  Not every angel-human couple had the same difficulty conceiving as Dean & Cas did, but on average the conception rates were about 15% of their human-human counterparts.

The results of the IVF experiment were informative, but disappointing.  Every child conceived using IVF was a human.  Beyond not being a nephilim, the children weren’t even vessels.  By being removed from an ensouled body or its angel, the grace just seemed to fade into nothingness.  As a practical matter, that meant that all nephilim & vessels had to come about the old fashioned way.  If they had a variety of willing vessels to choose from, angels could switch their sex to accommodate zir partner.  But otherwise options for persevering the populations were limited- and unpleasantly physical.

Dylaniel was tapping his fingertips to the music to try to take his mind off of the mating game.  When he was younger he’d fleetingly thought about taking up an instrument.  His dad had given him his aesthetic appreciation of music and his xe had given him an ear for tones & patterns.  The hobby had been set aside when he changed his focus to combat training.  It was another thing that was sacrificed to the war.

He heard a knock and looked up.  After a moment, Dean opened the bedroom door at a respectfully slow pace.  Dylaniel paused his music, then pull out his earbuds.

"Can we talk for a minute?”  Dean asked as he reached for a chair, but stopped just short of grabbing it.  Dylaniel was pleased to see he wasn’t taking the conversation for granted.

“Yes.”  He put his iPod on the nightstand, but didn’t bother sitting up.

“I heard that you shot down all the…”  Dean chewed his lip uncomfortably before settling on his wording.  "offers.“

"Yes.”

Dean leaned back in the chair.  He sighed while running his fingers through his hair.  Neither of them wanted to be having the conversation.  After taking a few moments to collect his thoughts, Dean leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“I’m sorry we didn’t give you a brother or sister.”  Dean said quietly.

“I don’t blame you or xe.”

“I know you don’t-  I just hate how unfair life is for you.”  Dean rubbed the back of his neck.  "I had hoped that we could win this thing while you were still a kid, but you haven’t been a kid for a long time-“

"I don’t want to have a child.”  Dylaniel stared at the ceiling while talking.

“Do you not want to have a child or do you not want to make one?”

“Both.”  Dean nodded at his son’s response, then smiled at a thought.

“Did I ever tell you that I was really uncomfortable when your xe & I were trying to have you?  I hated having him stuck in the wrong body- and we were trying for about six months.  I’m surprised he didn’t divorce me for being so damn touchy about it.”

“Touchy?”  Dylaniel propped himself up on his elbows, then looked at his dad.

“Being with a woman after so long with a guy- I didn’t want to do anything but the bare minimum.  Lights off, down to business, get it over with.”

“That sounds efficient.”  Dylaniel commented.  Dean chuckled while rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, well.  Most people actually enjoy sex- not that there’s anything wrong if you don’t.  Some people just aren’t into it and that’s fine.”  Dean caught himself and tried to reassure Dylaniel that he wasn’t judging him.  "I’m just saying if they ever nail you down, there are ways to make it easier for you.“

"That’s comforting.”  Dylaniel raised one eyebrow to help convey his sarcasm.  "Making the process easier doesn’t help me avoid it all together.“

"Maybe you need to have higher standards.”  Dean mused with a shrug of false innocence.  "You’re the first of the nephilim to get paired off- you’re setting a precedent.  And you’re the Sword of Heaven, you should be discerning…  I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes you years to find someone worth entrusting the bloodline to.“

"I thought Sam & Kaylee were the politicians.”  Dylaniel commented through the smallest of smiles.

“Hustlers are more common in our family than politicians.”


	28. 2036

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	29. 2037

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	30. 2038

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	31. 2039

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